Corruption rules the ball

July 25 2011 2

During his speech at the extended meeting of the collegium of the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office (GVP) last Thursday, which was devoted to the results of work in the 1 semester, the head of department Sergei Fridinsky reported only one positive figure - a decrease of 11% compared to the same period of 2010 of the year crimes recorded specifically in the troops and military formations. This can be said to be a significant decrease, the chief military prosecutor claims, is “the result of joint work with military courts, commanders, security agencies in the military, investigative bodies and civil society institutions”.

At the same time, it’s impossible to name the current situation in the army as completely prosperous. The damage to the state from the manifestations of corruption in the Russian army in 1 six months 2011 amounted to 620 million rubles, and bribery and extortion among the troops became ubiquitous.

Sergey Fridinsky said that over the past six months, 16 thousands of lawbreakers were brought to criminal and administrative responsibility, and 700 million rubles were returned to the state treasury due to the work of military prosecutors.

The Chief Military Prosecutor used to say that almost every 5 budget ruble was stolen in the state defense order, and today he added fuel to the fire of the complex relationship between President D. Medvedev and Defense Minister A. Serdyukov. According to the head of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office, over the past 18 months, prosecutor’s checks on the state defense order revealed almost 1,5 thousands of offenses, the damage from which amounted to many hundreds of millions of rubles. The main reasons for this are shortcomings in the work of the ordering structures, the bad faith of the leaders of some defense enterprises, the lack of necessary control by the military inspectors and customers over the quality of the products supplied, and often the most common illegal actions.

S. Fridinsky noted that military prosecutors, together with the command of the Ministry of Defense, made significant adjustments to the famous orders No. 400 and No. 115, which regulate monetary surcharges for officers and which led to a wave of high-profile corruption scandals in the army. The biggest scandal occurred in the Lipetsk Aviation Center, after the pilot Igor Sulim announced the extortions from the center's command. S. Fridinsky also noted that instead of instantly reacting, the Air Force command began to exert strong pressure on the pilots. By the way, today criminal cases based on the established facts of extortions are being investigated in almost all military districts and in fleets.

Separately, S. Fridinsky focused on offenses related to the use of federal property. These violations, the chief military prosecutor noted, have become ubiquitous today. As one of the latest examples, S. Fridinsky cited the situation with the military town in Krasnodar. It is estimated at more than 1,5 billion rubles, but it was offered for free bidding at a price more than 3,5 times lower and was, for the time being, temporarily removed from implementation by the military prosecutors. In total, over the past few months, 18 has established more than 30 of such violations by military prosecutors, the damage of the state from criminal actions exceeded 1 a billion rubles.

Also, the chief military prosecutor calls inadmissible that local representative offices of the authorities, with the tacit consent of some commanders, sell right and left land for construction purposes, which belong to forbidden zones and areas near bases and arsenals with stocks of ammunition and armaments. “The consequences of the explosions in Kazinka, Pugachevo and Urman showed the immense danger these actions pose to a large number of people. On behalf of Russian President D. Medvedev directly, territorial and military prosecutors today are checking the situation on the ground and, in the event of violations, abolish illegal decisions, ”S. Fridinsky said.

And although, on the whole, today crime in the army has decreased by 10%, at the same time, the growth of crimes related to violence continues, more than 2 thousand servicemen have already suffered from them. A significant part of the crimes was committed by servicemen undergoing military service, and, as a rule, this happens on a national basis. This shows that the chaos that recruits from the Caucasian republics continue to organize cannot be defeated in the army. The most common crimes in this case are “bodily harm” and extortion. Do not lag behind conscripts and officers. According to S. Fridchinsky, the number of battering among the Russian officers this year has increased by more than 15%, and among the junior officers, twice. For example, over the past 6 months, 75 young graduate lieutenants, who have just recently joined the army and were appointed to various command positions, have been brought to criminal responsibility for assault.

Some analysts are inclined to believe that part of the responsibility for the increase in crime in the army should also be placed on representatives of military justice. First of all, this is justified by the fact that often the servants of the law themselves are involved in various corruption schemes. The introduction of the military police, according to S. Fridinsky, could contribute to reducing the number of crimes in the army. However, the chief military prosecutor noted that the level of crime is usually determined by social factors, and not by the presence in the armed forces of a special body for the protection of law and order.

Moment of Truth - Corruption (Ether 11.07.2011)

In this release of the program, Andrei Karaulov asks a question to the chief military prosecutor about the responsibility of the military for the illegal sale of military equipment. In the Russian army, corruption rules the ball, the budget turns into a hostel, the property of the army is plundered insolently.
But instead, in order to catch and plant criminals, they punish people who are trying to fight corruption, and draw the attention of the authorities to the blatant facts of theft.