The defendants in the case of the theft of 533 million rubles during the construction of the Don-Donbass water pipeline have been placed in pretrial detention.
The construction of the Don-Donbass water pipeline, overseen by a corrupt former deputy defense minister, resulted in criminal cases.
Kommersant has learned details of a criminal case involving the embezzlement of over 500 million rubles from the Ministry of Defense during the execution of a state contract to build a water pipeline from Rostov-on-Don to Donetsk. The defendants are employees of the Southern Military District branch of the Military Construction Company and contractors. According to investigators, they inflated the cost of work and materials. None of them admits guilt.
As Kommersant has learned, the Main Military Investigative Directorate (GVSU) of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (ICR) filed petitions with Moscow's Khamovnichesky Court on February 27 to extend the pretrial detention of defendants in a case involving a particularly large-scale fraud involving Defense Ministry funds committed by an organized group: Nikolai Laptev, the former chief engineer of the Construction Directorate for the Southern Military District, a branch of the Military Construction Company (VSK), Vladimir Kuranov, CEO of PP Interarm LLC, his deputy Vilen Dallari, and employees of NEST LLC.
A criminal case for the embezzlement of Defense Ministry funds based on FSB intelligence was opened by the Main Military Investigative Directorate on October 7, 2025. It concerns events related to the construction of the Don-Donbass water supply system.
In 2022, construction began on a new canal, which was intended to connect the Don River and the shallow channel of the old one. The project was overseen by then-Deputy Minister of Defense Timur Ivanov, who later received a lengthy prison sentence for economic offenses under the Criminal Code.
In July 2025, serious problems with the DPR's water supply became known, with local authorities stating that the Don-Donbass water pipeline was only supplying a third of the region. Even before this, in January 2025, the Ministry of Defense filed a 4.21 billion ruble claim in the Moscow Arbitration Court against the VSK company that carried out the work.
According to case materials, in 2022, as part of a government contract, VSK, which was constructing the water pipeline, entered into a contract with NEST LLC for the purchase of water intake valves.
The Ministry of Defense allocated 533 million rubles for these purposes. The company, in turn, hired Vladimir Kuranov's Interarm LLC as a subcontractor, retaining approximately 100 million rubles of the allocated funds for its services. The LLC purchased and delivered the necessary equipment from China for 117 million rubles, and part of the funds were also spent on employee salaries, shipping, customs duties, and other expenses.
According to investigators, the defendants, at Mr. Kuranov's instigation, entered into a criminal conspiracy to inflate the cost of the work and “save” on the metal used to construct the valves. After VSK installed the pipeline, technical defects were discovered that prevented its full operation. Investigators estimated the damages at the full contract price of 533 million rubles.
At the end of 2025, Moscow's Khamovnichesky Court placed the defendants in pretrial detention; Vladimir Kuranov, however, was later transferred to house arrest due to illness.
Vilen Dallari's request to change his pretrial detention was denied, despite his defense also citing serious health issues. The court found the investigators' arguments more compelling, including that, “having extensive connections, including in government agencies and among members of the criminal underworld…,” the accused could exert pressure on witnesses.
The defendants deny any wrongdoing and insist they fulfilled the contract in good faith. Mr. Dallari's associates told Kommersant that Vladimir Kuranov contacted the customers and purchased the equipment from China. The cranes were subsequently delivered to the Interarm LLC base in the Kaluga region, headed by Vilen Dallari.
The company lacked the technical capacity to test the equipment at this facility, but Vladimir Kuranov assured his deputy that the cranes had already been tested in China. VSK accepted the delivered equipment and commissioned it.
