Chief Military Prosecutor: the scale of theft in the army is amazing

January 13 2011 2

The amount of theft in the Russian army and the scale of corruption are amazing. This opinion was expressed by the chief military prosecutor Sergey Fridinsky. He also noted positive indicators - a reduction in the number of deserters and, in general, crime among the troops.

In an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, Sergei Fridinsky said that a criminal case had been initiated against a group of officials of the Main Military Medical Directorate and the State Order Directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry. Representatives of these structural divisions of the military department concluded a state contract with a commercial company for the supply of medical equipment worth over 26 million rubles, Interfax reports.

"As we found out, the cost of equipment purchased from merchants was more than tripled, and the state was damaged by more than million rubles for 17. Now, at our request, the money was returned to the state. Nevertheless, some military officials involved in this unsightly stories“Now we have to answer before the law,” said Fridinsky.

At the same time, he noted that services in which budget money was stolen were repeatedly checked by various kinds of controllers.

“Apparently, they have poor eyesight or professional fitness, and maybe even conscience. We’ll find out. No one will go unpunished,” said Fridinsky.

Asked about corruption in the military, he said that "the scale is sometimes amazing." "Sometimes it seems that people just lost their sense of proportion and conscience. The amount of theft is often shocking," said Fridinsky.
At the same time, the criminogenic situation in the army and in general in the supervised troops, according to him, “is stable, crime has decreased there over the past year”. "We have a lot of military units in which no violations were registered at all during the year. A significant decrease in indicators - by almost a third - was recorded for crimes against military property, against life and health, including grave consequences, the number of military service evasions decreased almost twice (deserters and samolovshchiki), and also encroachments on weapon and ammunition. The number of offenses among officers and crime in the army as a whole has decreased by more than 17%, "said Fridinsky.

Nevertheless, he noted, it’s too early to calm down. "Unfortunately, along with the positive moments, there are some unpleasant ones." “In certain areas, in particular, the security of budget funds allocated for military needs, corruption, non-statutory relations, the curve continues to go up,” said Sergey Fridinsky.