And the state secrets become investments ...
Only last year more than 400 Russian officials fled to the UKPolice recently detained three people who tried to sell the post of deputy governor of the Ryazan region to a certain merchant for 5 million rubles. Scammers for several days in a row, and more than once, showed central and regional TV channels. A criminal case was initiated under the articles "Attempted crime" and "Especially large-scale fraud." The investigation requested the arrest of the detainees. But about the one who intended to buy a high-ranking official for his main (commercial) job, not a half word even in a whisper.
Moreover, in this case, it turned out that, in addition to the Ryazan region, the detainees promised to help promote candidates for any leadership positions in the 36 regions of the Russian Federation. There, too, there were those who wished to serve in such a somewhat extravagant way to serve the Fatherland.
More clearly, for the sake of what the “candidates” for high and not-so-public positions are ready to risk big money. If before officials stole millions of rubles, then somewhere from the beginning of 2000's, embezzlement began to amount to billions, and even tens of billions. The “brand” under which the country is being robbed has also changed. Previously, the stolen goods were hidden in offshores, today they are hiding abroad together with stolen money. Examples of this throughout Russia, alas, do not count. “The numbers are impressive: twice as many officials fled to the UK this year. More than 400 people. And they did not run away naked or barefoot, but with very big money. With a lot of money. About 6,5 billion dollars exported to the UK, the Queen of England ", - said last year, deputy chairman of the Moscow City Duma Committee on Combating Corruption Irina Rukina.
Runaways, without hesitation, are thrown into Russia luxurious mansions, apartments, cars. Abroad, they are waiting for more great wealth. Since December 2012, investigators have been looking for the ex-head of the legal department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Oleg Donskikh. He is suspected of embezzling 800 million rubles. through the company "Rosagroleasing". As soon as the investigators decided to file a formal accusation against him, Donskoy disappeared abroad.
This is where they are called corrupt, and there they are investors, says Chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Committee Kirill Kabanov.
“In informal conversations with representatives of government agencies (European and American), we discussed the issue that countries have committed themselves to countering money laundering. And I asked: why do so many billionaire corrupt officials run abroad? I was answered: crisis. You understand that huge amounts are invested in the economy. They steal here, plunder the budget, and there they take money, their families live there, they get insurance. This has become a trend, ”said Kabanov.
Ran officials at all levels. For example, in the same company, a much less influential and well-off representative of the government, Igor Kalachnikov, who once headed the administration of the rural settlement of Zavidovo in the Tver Region. He was taken red-handed when selling several hectares of land from the Ivankovo reservoir for 45 million rubles, but was released under a subscription. And he immediately fled to Ukraine. After that, he was in the “outskirts of the capital of foggy Albion”. Home is not going to. “Very many former mayors, former deputies and their wives who leave Russia, abroad, declare that they are victims of the fight against corruption. And, as a rule, they are helped to get visas, citizenship, residence permit. Look: the whole of London is crammed, people buy real estate, pay taxes to the treasury. To that treasury, from our money, ”says Kabanov.
For three years, the investigating authorities have been looking for the former Minister of Finance of the Moscow Region, Alexey Kuznetsov. Frauds with the budget, land plots, shares of enterprises, loans allowed him to buy real estate in the United States, get a gold card «American Express» and, as soon as the problems with the law began, the minister quietly went abroad. He was put on the international wanted list on charges of embezzling more than 3,5 billion rubles. in October 2010, reminds agency "Interfax", and detained only 5 July 2013 in the Cote d'Azur at the request of Interpol.
The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation sent a request for the extradition of a former official to France. He himself refused from voluntary extradition to Russia, as a result of which the matter will be considered by the French court 17 of October 2013. Lawyers for the ex-minister claim that his prosecution in Russia has political motives. But if the Russian request is satisfied, then Kuznetsov will be charged with major fraud. Law enforcement agencies have already decided to arrest Kuznetsov’s Russian property: eight land plots, two apartments in Moscow and two cars. But Kuznetsov, we emphasize, is suspected of embezzling at least 10 billion rubles. from the budget and damage to the area by about 27 billion
He kidnapped, appropriated, fraudulently seized, legalized criminally acquired, hid from the tax authorities, received a bribe, received a rollback, stole, stole, took away ... Almost every day newsand the third decade. And they have no end and edge.
At the end of May 2013. The Chamber of Accounts, jointly with the FSB, completed an inspection of the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography, or, as the state structure is often called, the Federal Registration Service. The auditors were very interested in the funds allocated for the implementation of the “Creating a Real Estate Cadastre System” subprogram within the framework of the federal targeted program. Officially to finance the subprogram on 2006-2012. 52,8 billion rubles were allocated, and 42,3 billion - from the federal budget.
Judging by the act of the Accounts Chamber, this sub-program was never implemented, and huge public funds were squandered. Rasta acquired a truly astronomical volume. The auditor of the Accounts Chamber, Igor Vasilyev, who led the audit of the Federal Registration Service, said, inter alia: “Financial irregularities in the total amount of 23,9 billion rubles were revealed, including inappropriate spending of funds in the amount of 2,5 billion rubles.” Over all, it turns out that more than half of the targeted funds were actually stolen. “It should be noted that the main volume of violations falls on the sphere of IT infrastructure and IT technologies, as well as the sphere of cartography. Under contracts for hundreds of millions of rubles, involving the design and development of software, the results of work in the Federal Register are not available; time-consuming, expensive work, for example, on the implementation of software throughout the country according to the documents was carried out by the performers for 3-5 days; equipment equipped with mass production was purchased to equip the territories; work was ordered and huge amounts of material were purchased that were not suitable for keeping the inventory, etc. These directions in Rosreestre are supervised by one deputy leader, S.A. Sapelnikov ", - said Igor Vasiliev.
According to experts, with their actions, Sapelnikov actually disrupted the project to create the State Real Estate Cadastre (GKN), which is key to the development of the Russian economy, as it has an important impact on land relations. After all, this cadastre uniquely identifies the property, the place where it is located, how much it costs and to whom it belongs. Without an exact answer to these questions, it is impossible to consciously manage either state or private households, collect taxes, plan a business, determine the boundaries of management entities, etc. Experts draw attention to the fact that the creation of the cartographic basis of the cadastre was carried out in the Russian and American coordinates. It is impossible not to ask the question: why did Sapelnikov need to develop an analogue of the Russian real estate cadastre system in accordance with American standards?
The answer, perhaps, lies in the fact that one of the "trusted" companies of Sapelnikov is Date + LLC, a Russian partner of ESRI (USA), specializing in the development of software for geographic information systems. It is known that ESRI and its Russian subsidiary are showing great interest in the creation of the Russian Spatial Data Infrastructure. For example, Date + LLC was not only actively involved by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation to participate in the development and implementation of the RIPD concept, but also carried out work to create a public cadastral map and a geoportal of spatial data of the Federal Registration Service. This opened for the “daughter” of the American corporation ESRI full access to the spatial data of the inventory. It seems that this access could have been provided to the Americans by Sergei Sapelnikov.
We add that ESRI, whose interests are Data + LLC, is a strategic partner of the Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF), which was founded in 2004 by the initiative of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Agency (National Geospatial Intelligence Agency). - NGIA). Thus, the NGIA is a US government agency whose task is to provide military, state, and civilian users with generic intelligence and cartographic information. At the same time, NGIA is not only part of the US intelligence community, but also falls under the jurisdiction of the national intelligence director and the US Secretary of Defense personally. I would not like to believe in it, but in fact it turns out that Sapelnikov, perhaps unwittingly, “merged” strategic cartographic data on the territorial structure of the Russian Federation to American intelligence agents, right?
The person involved in this scandalous anti-corruption test, Sergei Sapelnikov, did not wait for a call to the investigators and secretly left Russia without the permission of the special services and the leadership of the 7 September department.
According to media reports, Sapelnikov crossed the state border in the Bryansk region by car, after which he disappeared in Ukraine. Now nobody in Russia knows where the former official is. By the nature of his work, he inevitably came across information of particular secrecy. Moreover, according to experts, the person holding the post of deputy head of the Federal Registration Service knew all the state secrets. “There is a higher form - this so-called“ special folder ”and“ especially secret documents, ”explained the Chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Committee, Kirill Kabanov. - Command points of strategic purpose, command posts of the top management, hidden command posts. So Mr. Sapelnikov had this information in full. Moreover, he put all this information on the state card ”. Recently it became known that the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case of negligence against him.
If, in the near future, a former official does not voluntarily return to Russia, he can be accused in absentia, and also put on the international wanted list, it was officially announced. Experts, however, believe that this situation does not threaten Sapelnikov with anything scary. "The article" Negligence "- stillborn and rarely used in practice, because it refers to the difficult to prove. In fact, she says that the person was mistaken and unknowingly committed a crime. This is such an article-outlet, to reassure people, to show the work of the investigation on high-profile cases that, they say, something is being done, lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov told Izvestia. - Of course, no one will ever declare a person on the international wanted list for such a small article, look for him and, especially, take him under arrest. Therefore, the official can calm down and live peacefully abroad. " To this, we add, this article provides for a penalty of a fine or up to three months of arrest.
It is like an elephant - a pellet. Therefore, it is impossible not to recall here the loud scandal of 1998 - 2001. with ex-Minister of Atomic Energy Evgeny Adamov. He was arrested in 2005 in Switzerland at the request of the US Department of Justice, which accused him of misappropriating large sums of money allocated to Russia by the American side to ensure the safety of nuclear facilities. In the United States, he was threatened with up to 60 years in prison and a fine of 1,75 million dollars. He was almost extradited to the United States on suspicion of embezzling 9 million dollars allocated to support Russia's nuclear security.
The “Adamov case” just caused a great commotion due to the fact that the former minister possessed nuclear secrets. Vladimir Zhirinovsky then offered to make all the state secret carriers not allowed to leave.
As a result, Evgeny Adamov immediately opened a criminal case in Russia, obtained his extradition to his homeland and sentenced him to five and a half years, immediately replacing the term with a conditional one.
In general, probably, everyone who watches the events in Russia has a head buzz from loud reports about the initiation of criminal cases against corrupt officials, that they, in a most surprising way, managed not only to escape abroad, but also to transfer huge amounts of money in advance. cash. But there are almost no reports of subsequent equally loud court cases. The question is: in what “black hole” do both affairs and public money fail?
Under current laws, leaving Russia abroad may be limited to those who have access to state secrets, are in military service, or are employed by the FSB. But nowhere regulated - for how long. A moratorium on traveling abroad for officials for a certain period was also proposed by the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. He addressed the country's leadership, parliament and society with ideas to close the border for high-ranking officials in his article, which was published on April 1 in the Izvestia newspaper. The reason for reflection was, in particular, the death of Berezovsky. “I’m worried if there were any papers left in the vaults of the oligarch that could keep state secrets after the sudden death. This is not an idle interest: Berezovsky, as you know, in the middle of 1990, served as deputy secretary of the country's Security Council, ”Kadyrov noted.
In the publication, he recalled the foreign “tours” of former politicians, including Yuri Luzhkov, Mikhail Kasyanov, Alexei Kudrin, Mikhail Gorbachev ...
“I’m just convinced that the interests of Russia's national security dictate the urgent need to limit such“ tours ”of ex-leaders of such a high rank. If not a ban at all ... In the Soviet Union there were also such restrictions, and quite justified; there was even such a term “restricted to leave”, - said Ramzan Kadyrov.
In his opinion, if you really decided to go into power, then be ready for restrictions. “It’s not at all about lowering the iron curtain between Russia and the rest of the world and prohibiting all citizens of our country from living abroad or going on vacation, studying or working,” explained the head of Chechnya. “We are talking only about those who have chosen to serve the Fatherland as a vital mission - about high-ranking civil servants.”
The proposal to introduce a moratorium, even for former owners of secrets, worried human rights activists. What about freedom of movement?
“My familiar experts say that there is only one secret - in the defense department,” notes First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications (“Fair Russia” faction) Andrei Tumanov. - And in terms of technology, we have nothing to hide for a long time. In the West, everything is known. "
After the publication, Kadyrov’s press secretary, Alvi Karimov, in an interview with the Interfax news agency, explained that the head of Chechnya meant only former state employees who have access to information of a “strategic nature”. Ramzan Kadyrov’s proposal to make high-ranking officials not allowed to travel abroad was reflected in the draft law prepared by State Duma deputy from the United Russia faction Shamsail Saraliyev, but this proposal was not supported either by the State Duma or by the highest authorities.
In this regard, I would like to recall some facts from our nearest stories, they were also featured in television shows on the bloody events of October 3 1993.
So, in 1994-1995, when Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Polevanov took the place of Anatoly Chubais, he was amazed to find that the State Property Committee of the Russian Federation was essentially a “department” of the CIA. There were more than 40 American advisers.
Their relatives and friends bought unique enterprises of the military-industrial complex for a pittance, which then went bankrupt, the equipment was scrapped, and entire technological lines were destroyed. Secret documentation was taken out of the country by wagons.
Polevanov described all this in detail in his report to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. No reaction from the leadership of the country followed. True, Polevanova was soon transferred to another job. “In the entourage of Anatoly Borisovich as advisers, as it turned out today, the staff of the CIA of the USA worked. But the funniest thing is that upon returning to the US, they were brought to justice for being enriched in the course of privatization in the Russian Federation in violation of the laws of their country and did not have the right to do so as acting intelligence officers, ”Putin said in a straight line from citizens of Russia (25.04.2013).
Today, Andrei Kokoshin, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute of International Security Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, says: “I find in some American publications references to special importance secret documents on defense issues with the letter“ K ”, which appeared in 90's in foreign libraries and archives . They are from the personal archive of one of the very responsible workers who had access to the special secrets of the state. ”
Now we live in a different country compared to the one that was in the infinite 1990's. The leadership defends our national interests and seemingly vigilantly ensures that state and military secrets are securely protected. But, strangely, the people's money is leaking over the country's cordons, as before, along with carriers of state and military secrets.
Let's say honestly: any official has access to all sorts of secrets, only everyone has a certain degree of access to them. And anyone, if desired, can "resolve the issue." For a certain bribe, of course. “In addition to wages, which are several times higher than from scientists, teachers, doctors, librarians, officials receive bribes — this source of income is central to the bureaucracy,” writes Alexander Potyomkin, leading researcher at the Institute of Economics, RAS. - According to the Ministry of Economic Development, bribes take more than 10% of all revenues of the country. These are official numbers. It seems that they are understated at least 1,5 – 2 times. Taking into account the income of the bureaucratic elite from direct and hidden participation in the economic activities of state monopolies and oligarchic structures, official salaries and other expenses for maintaining bureaucratic devices of all levels, the bureaucratic system absorbs up to 35 – 40% of the country's income. And these numbers are increasing every year.
The money paid to officials in the form of bribes is withdrawn from the country's economy: large bribe-takers keep them on offshore accounts, small ones - “in stockings.” Moreover, bribes that officials take from businessmen are taken into account in the price of enterprises' products. As a result, the rise in prices due to bribes is about 5% per year.
Thus, the annual growth of inflation by more than 40% is provided by the “corruption tax”, which officials impose on business.
An unprecedented economic system has emerged in Russia - the bureaucratic one, which is a conglomerate of the market, planning, administrative, and feudal systems. This is the final result of the reforms of Gaidar and his team. ”
The number of officials in our country is more than 2,4 million people, and no matter how they reduce themselves, their number is only growing. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov recently stated during a State Council meeting that the number of municipal and state employees over five years increased by 100 thousand. (By the way, the number of officials in Russia in comparison with the USSR over the past 20 with a few years increased 6 times.)
To each of them, as they say, "the observer" is not attached. And in connection with the widespread introduction of the Internet into our life, it is possible and without any “departure” to sell any secret to anyone, and transfer money abroad. No prohibitions solve this problem, and all prohibitions, in fact, have long lost their meaning. Speech, therefore, can go only about careful selection of personnel. Today, the slogan "Personnel decide everything" has acquired unprecedented relevance.
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