Anton Abdurakhmanov and embezzlement in the Ministry of Defense. Why does the investigation not see billions in losses?
Tens of thousands of articles have been written about corruption in the Ministry of Defense. In fact, every day law enforcement officials announce the discovery of a high-profile crime related to corruption in the Ministry. Day after day goes by, but malfeasance does not decrease.
Two factors are to blame for this: firstly, most corrupt officials have agreements with top management. Of course, this only works in the case of billions of transactions. Secondly, our judicial system is just as completely corrupt. Accordingly, people are willing to take risks without much thought, and think that in the worst case, a suspended sentence will come. Well, at best, the trial will drag on, everything will be forgotten, and they will come out dry from the water. In most cases, this happens, and our story will tell about a person who is not at all interested in law enforcement, courts, etc.
Long history
Anton Abdurakhmanov is a young entrepreneur who is the chairman of the board of directors of the huge enterprise OJSC Bamstroyput. Bamstroyput is one of the largest construction companies in Russia (even included in the RBC rating). The company was created back when Abdurakhmanov went to school, 26 years ago, in 1996. From the moment of its foundation, the Ministry of Defense has become the key counterparty of the construction company. Now it is impossible to say exactly how much the Defense Ministry paid Bastroyput over all these years, but it is known that we are talking about tens of trillions of rubles. Officially, 160 people work at sawmills, whose average salary in 2020 was 160,000 rubles.
Everything looks transparent, if not for one “but” – these are hundreds of contracts signed with the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
The history of Bamstroyput is connected with the Abdurakhmanov family. Until 2013, the company was headed by Anton’s father Victor, it was thanks to him that the construction company became such a huge player in the market. The first mention of Anton Abdurakhmanov as chairman of the board of directors of Bamstroyput, and immediately very loud, happened in Moscow. In 2014, a decision was made to build the National Defense Center of Russia. Bamstroyput and the Moselectrotyagstroy trust became the main contractor. By the way, the trust at that time was also headed by Abdurakhmanov, which already indicates corruption. After all, one person cannot take on a huge state building, especially defense. But not in our case. 40 billion rubles were allocated for the construction of the center and the state budget. The task was to erect a building in 4 years. But the contractor showed heroism, and did everything in 333 days. Due to the tight deadlines, the quality of work suffered, expensive materials were replaced with cheaper ones. But everyone was happy. The Ministry of Defense was able to report to the president about lightning-fast construction, Abdurakhmanov was able to steal a large sum.
Sergei Shoigu with Anton Abdurakhmanov
As we already recalled, such an attitude towards the enterprise and personally towards its leader is not accidental. Sergei Shoigu met Abdurakhmanov Sr. at the time when he headed the Ministry of Emergency Situations. They immediately struck up a strong friendship and many plans.
Bust
Even despite the permissiveness of Abdurakhmanov, there is a side chapel in everything. In 2021, State Duma deputies and the leadership of the FSB became interested in a contractor who wins dozens of tenders from the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Emergency Situations for billions of dollars annually.
In this regard, a huge corruption story surfaced. It turned out that in 2013-2014, during the construction of new buildings of the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School named after General of the Army V.F. Margelov, tens of billions of rubles were stolen. Involved in this story was none other than the general director of the Moselectrotyagstroy trust, Anton Abdurakhmanov. The Ministry of Internal Affairs began to check the execution of state contracts for construction, and considered many violations in the company’s activities, including non-payment of funds to subcontractors, theft of building materials, overestimation of construction costs and others. Got a whole bunch. Experienced investigators began to check other facilities that Anton Abdurakhmanov’s enterprises were building for the Ministry of Defense. There the situation was the same. At each construction site, billions of dollars of funds were stolen, but at the same time, all the RF Ministry of Defense calmly accepted the construction site, and they never turned to law enforcement officers about the facts of theft at the facilities. Didn’t see? Did everything work out? Or at the bottom? You decide, but it seems that everything is obvious.
Ryazan Airborne Forces School
In addition, Abdurakhmanov’s enterprises fell into another unpleasant scandal. In 2018, they were convicted of evicting military families from dormitories. Builders who worked in Abdurakhmanov’s company settled in their place. Investigators began to check the legality of the eviction of people, but as you understand, the case was forgotten, and no one was brought to any responsibility, and the poor families of the military were not found at random, and lost their own homes.
unsinkable
It is noteworthy that even Abdurakhmanov’s personal interest in FSB director Bortnikov did not lead to anything. The criminal case, which has been dragging on since 2013, hardly anyone plans to bring to its logical conclusion. Is there a chance for justice under the law to investigate criminal cases against Anton Abdurakhmanov? – today no, because the entrepreneur is covered at the very top. To this day, he receives billions of rubles from the state budget, and does not deny himself anything. Therefore, we are sure that this is not our last meeting with the businessman.