In Rostov-on-Don, the trial of the deputy commander of the troops of the Southern Military District for logistics, Lieutenant General Viktor Voronov, began. He is accused of abuse of power, taking bribes and embezzlement. The state prosecutor stated that the defendant equipped a private household at the expense of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, and also stole furniture from his own office. The damage from the actions of the accused was estimated at 1.2 million rubles. Viktor Voronov himself denies his guilt.
The Deputy Commander of the Southern Military District for Logistics, Lieutenant-General Viktor Voronov, was detained by law enforcement agencies in July 2022. The general was suspected of landscaping his own household in 2021 at the expense of the Ministry of Defense. The amount of damage from the actions of Viktor Voronov, according to investigators, amounted to 1.2 million rubles. Viktor Voronov was removed from his post in July 2022, but is on the reserve. He is currently under house arrest.
During the first court session in the Rostov Garrison Military Court, the prosecutor brought charges against Viktor Voronov under three articles: Part 5 of Art. 290 (taking a bribe), part 3 of Art. 285 (abuse of power), part 3 of Art. 159 (fraud) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
According to investigators, in May 2021, the wife of Viktor Voronov acquired a land plot in the name of her mother in Rostov-on-Don, where the defendant lived with his family.
Being the direct head of the branch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Central Housing and Communal Administration” of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for the Southern Military District Igor Tkhorov and a number of other officials, the lieutenant general forced them to organize construction work on a site owned by his family, the prosecutor said.
According to the materials of the case, Igor Thorov entered into an agreement with the head of the production and technical department of the same branch, Sergei Nanavyan, and other representatives of the unit. In addition, Alexander Degtyarev, General Director of Batayskaya Construction Company LLC, participated in the conspiracy. Two fictitious contracts were concluded with this enterprise for the supply of products for the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Central Housing and Communal Administration” in the amount of 1.1 million rubles. However, the actual funds received were used for work on the site of Viktor Voronov’s family through the involvement of contractors and individual entrepreneurs. Also, employees of the housing and communal services department of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Central Housing and Communal Administration” controlled by Igor Thorov were involved in the work on arranging the site: they brought crushed stone to the site, cut down trees and removed the soil layer.
The prosecutor qualified the actions of General Voronov as taking a bribe, since in exchange for the services of the staff of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Central Housing and Communal Administration”, the accused guaranteed them his patronage.
The amount of the bribe was estimated at 954 thousand rubles. Also in this episode, Viktor Voronov was accused of abuse of power.
As the defendant’s lawyer Alexander Zamansky told Kommersant, the Voronov family independently paid for all the work on the improvement of the local area. “Supporting documents about this – receipts, checks, extracts, etc. – my client provided the investigation on the very first day. Also, the facts of payment for work from the personal budget of the Voronov family are confirmed by the records of telephone conversations available in the case file and the testimony of witnesses. These objective facts testify to the inconsistency of the accusations brought against Viktor Voronov,” summed up Alexander Zamansky. From a more detailed description of the position, the defense refused, referring to the procedural subtleties of the trial.
In addition to accusations of abuse of office and corruption, Lieutenant General Viktor Voronov was accused of embezzling property of the Joint Strategic Command of the Southern Military District (OSK SMD) in the amount of 271 thousand rubles. We are talking about a sofa and two armchairs that were in the office of the accused. “On one of the days of June 2022, Viktor Voronov, using his official position, personally instructed the head of the operational maintenance department of the central branch of the housing and communal administration to move the furniture from the office to the place of his residence. On the same day, employees subordinate to Voronov, on official vehicles, being unaware of the mercenary intentions of the accused, moved a sofa bed worth 141 thousand rubles, a leather chair worth 61 thousand rubles. and a brown leather chair “Relax” worth 69,000 rubles. to Voronov’s house,” the prosecutor said during the court session.
At the moment, the furniture in question has been confiscated, the representative of the injured party specified.
Lieutenant-General Viktor Voronov himself denies his guilt on all charges. The next hearing in his case will take place on April 4.
Sixty-year-old Viktor Voronov has been serving in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for 43 years. He is a combat veteran. He was awarded the Order “For Military Merit”, medals of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland” I and II degree.