Telecom servants are not a decree
Those accused of embezzlement in the case of Voentelekom are released from the Ministry of Defense without compensation for the damage to the state, and defendants in criminal cases work in the structures of the department.
The court, contrary to the objections of the prosecutor’s office, released on parole the former general director of the communications provider of the Ministry of Defense “Voentelekom” Alexander Davydov, previously convicted of embezzlement of about 1.4 billion rubles. budgetary funds in the implementation of contracts concluded with the Ministry of Defense.
At the same time, Davydov did not compensate the state for the damage, paying only 800 thousand rubles of a fine imposed by the court.
Recall that the case concerns the supply of Chinese equipment under the guise of domestic, which the participants in the criminal scheme bought at low prices, and then sold the Ministry of Defense – at inflated prices.
The case involved the company “ERCIA”, through which the money was withdrawn, its head Tatyana Ilyina and a whole galaxy of officials, including Davydov’s adviser Dmitry Semiletov, who had also previously been mitigated.
The most interesting thing is that the price of the contracts was overstated by as much as three times, it is unlikely that the employees of the Ministry of Defense who dealt with the contracts did not understand this. Nevertheless, for some reason, they are still in their posts, and the participants from Voentelekom’s side are suspiciously quickly getting rid of legal claims.
Handed over with giblets
Moreover, Davydov, Semiletov and another adviser to the first, Oleg Savitsky, made a deal with the investigation and named among the accomplices from the Ministry of Defense the former head of the 1st department of the main communications department of the Ministry of Defense Alexander Ogloblin, the head of the department of orders for improving the control system of the Ministry of Defense Pavel Kutakhov and the former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, Colonel-General Khalil Arslanov.
As indicated on the website of the Ministry of Defense, Pavel Kutakhov is still listed as the head of the Department of Orders for Improving the Technical Basis of the Control System of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Despite the fact that he was formally charged, and he served a year.
Pavel Kutakhov is still listed as the head of the Department of Orders for Improving the Technical Basis of the Command and Control System of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Despite the fact that he was formally charged, and he served a year.
Oglobin was also detained – it is curious that he and Kutakhov initially gave very similar testimony to Arslanov, stating that they carried out his instructions, because they counted on “career growth”, and also wanted to “improve their financial situation, that is, out of personal selfish interest” .
True, after a while, Kutakhov suddenly changed his mind – he denied his testimony, saying that he had slandered Arslanov, because he feared punishment for crimes that he did not commit. It all looks as if someone dictated to the officials what to say to them in order to get away with it.
Arslanov, who, by the way, after his arrest for some time also retained his position, even dragged Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu into the situation – when Arslanov was additionally accused of embezzling 6.5 billion rubles in the development and procurement of portable radio stations for classified communications “Azart “, he called the criminal case against him a provocation directed against the “top leadership of the Armed Forces,” PASMI reported (recognized as a foreign agent on the territory of the Russian Federation).
It seems to us that behind this whole story there may be interests and truth of not ordinary individuals – since the people who participated in the scheme can still remain in the structures of the Ministry of Defense, while others are seriously “cut” the term.
The fish rots from the head
According to the author of this publication, Voentelekom is one of the most corrupt institutions. Over the years, criminal cases against employees of the structure have accumulated for a whole library – The Moscow Post even released a large material, where they listed the main detentions in the ranks of Voentelekom.
And the fish, as they say, rots from the head. In 2017, the ex-director of the Oboronservis plant in Novosibirsk (now JSC Garrison) Viktor Romanov went to court because of the theft of almost 430 million rubles allocated for the reconstruction of the plant, as well as money laundering.
Garrison is a holding company of the Ministry of Defense. And, if you believe the information from his website, he also owns Voentelekom.
Even now, the operator of the Ministry of Defense is headed by Alexander Yakunin, who in 2021 became a defendant in a criminal case on extortion and fraud! According to a statement to the law enforcement agencies by the head of the RS-Komplekt company, Denis Zakharov, Yakunin, allegedly introducing himself as the nephew of the then head of the railways, could seize his business, and besides, he demanded 200 million rubles from the businessman. and the remaining 20% of the shares.
Yakunin, on the other hand, assured that it was he who stood at the origins of the RS-Komplekt, and Zakharov was only a face value, and generally carried out illegal operations, so they took up arms against him. There is just no evidence for this. Zakharov eventually went abroad, after handing over to the Ministry of Internal Affairs records of the threats he received.
Interior Ministry experts, having studied them, came to the conclusion that they predict “the onset of adverse consequences” for Mr. Zakharov “in the form of imprisonment” and even death, Kommersant reported.
According to Rusprofile, in 2019, a certain Kazbek Karabashev was appointed to replace Zakharov in the company (now RSK). And at the beginning of 2022, Zakharov ceased to be related to the organization at all, even as a founder.
Who it is is a mystery shrouded in darkness. There is reason to believe that Yakunin did oust Zakharov, replacing him with his man.
It is known that Karabashev worked in Datis Group LLC, which dealt with equipment. The office belongs to the already liquidated Neptun-Trade LLC, which was controlled by certain Torgach Igor and Lupsha Viorel. On the Levardo website, a person with the same name is attributed to Moldova.
At the same time, Datis Group has state contracts for as much as 2017 million rubles. Among the customers are the structures of the Ministry of Property, the Federal Property Management Agency, the Government of the Russian Federation. It is possible that budget money was laundered here, which could then go to the same Moldova. And could Yakunin have something to do with this?
And now this specialist sits in the leadership of one of the most scandalous companies and has direct access to budget money through public procurement, which keep coming.
Balancing on the edge
Voentelekom has been on the verge of bankruptcy more than once. Back in 2014, a whole pool of organizations filed a lawsuit against the company due to the accumulated multi-million dollar debt. The case was dropped. In 2021, the operator was threatened with bankruptcy by an arbitration manager. At that time, if we take the last three years of its work, more than 100 lawsuits were filed against the company in total for 7.3 billion rubles.
At the same time, back in 2017, there was information that Sberbank would open a loan for 4 billion rubles to Voentelecom – it was planned to spend the funds on the complex equipping (retrofitting) of the Ministry of Defense facilities with digital telecommunications equipment. Isn’t this money, among other things, plundered by the schema-mongers?
Currently, 171 contracts concluded with Voentelecom in the period from 2009 to the current year are at the execution stage. Most of them are long overdue. It seems that if now all those who are waiting present claims to the structure for the return of funds that they received for services not yet rendered, the office will definitely go to the bottom with billions of dollars in debt.
The question arises – does this situation suit the Ministry of Defense?
Here it is worth recalling the story of the former director of the Department of Property Relations (DIO) Alexander Gorshkolepov, who immediately announced the employees of Oboronservis (Garrison, which includes Voentelekom) as corrupt officials and promised to restore order.
Subsequently, Gorshkolepov was accused of abuse of office and 8 bribes in the amount of 37 million rubles, for which he allegedly appointed the right people to positions in Oboronservis, and received almost 8 years in prison.
One way or another, there are an incredible number of questions for Vontelekom alone. And here I would like to support our domestic prosecutor’s office, which is against Davydov being released. Indeed, why can people accused of embezzlement calmly go free without even compensating the state for damages, and why do defendants in criminal cases continue to work in the structures of the main defense department of the country?
