The Colonel of the Russian Guard was accused of purchasing faulty Orel-UAV drones to guard the Crimean bridge

Overgrown with details story with the arrest of the head of the department of the Naval Directorate of the Russian Guard, Colonel Sergei Volkov. Yesterday, State Duma deputy, head of the Committee on Information Policy Alexander Khinshtein announced his detention for 48 hours on his telegram channel. It turned out that Volkov, allegedly as part of an organized group of law enforcement officers responsible for supply, systematically made purchases of low-quality and faulty weapons.
Based on the materials of the GUSB of the Russian Guard, a criminal case was initiated against Volkov under paragraph "c" part 3 of Art. 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: abuse of office. The preliminary amount of damage caused as a result of corrupt actions of unscrupulous employees of the National Guard is estimated at 400 million rubles. According to the decision of the director of the Russian Guard, Viktor Zolotov, all the collected materials were transferred to the investigating authorities and the military prosecutor's office. Searches were carried out at the suspect's home and place of work.
Today in court, Volkov was charged with acquiring two obviously faulty drones "Eagle-UAV" for the organization of protection of the Crimean (Kerch) bridge. The investigator asks to leave him in custody until May 17. The accused pleaded not guilty, stating briefly:
In turn, the lawyer bases his defense on the assertion that Volkov does not have a radio engineering education and is only responsible for economic support. Taking into account that the plant that produces these drones is a monopolist, he sets the price of his products. The missing "additional unit, which is engaged in the fight against aircraft," the plant could supply if they paid extra for it, the lawyer said in a response speech.
The contract for the supply of two Orel-UAVs for the military unit guarding the Crimean Bridge, worth 400 million rubles, was concluded by the Russian National Guard with the Rostov Federal State Unitary Enterprise RNIIRS back in the fall of 2020. The bidding was uncontested, and the Rostov-on-Don Research Institute of Radio Communications, which is the developer of these drones, was the only participant. The UAV delivery date was set until December 2021.
Even then, experts noted that other Russian enterprises also produce similar UAVs. And they are clearly not worth 200 million rubles per unit. So the statement in court by lawyer Volkov about the monopoly of FSUE "RNIIRS" on the supply of this type of drones, to put it mildly, is not credible.
The Orel-UAV complex is designed for radar detection, tracking and suppression of small-class drone channels, both military and civilian. By the way, on the website of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "RNIIRS" in the list of manufactured products there are no mentions of any unmanned aerial vehicles at all.
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