The contractors provided Vadim Shamarin with a confident welcome
The military investigation suspects the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, the Head of the Main Communications Directorate, Lieutenant General Vadim Shamarin in receiving bribes from the general director and chief accountant of OJSC Perm Telephone Plant Telta, Investigative Committee reports.
According to security officials, from 2016 to 2023, General Shamarin received 36 million rubles for “increasing the volume of products supplied under government contracts for the needs of the Russian Ministry of Defense and general patronage.”
The Perm Telephone Plant produces telephones and switches for special communication networks of officials (for example, Prestige-PS) and military field telephones (TA-57, TA-88 or TA-116). The latest security forces call “Tapik” or “Call to Moscow / Call to Putin (*international criminal)” – such devices are used in Russia (*aggressor country) to torture people under investigation with electric shock. For example, residents of Chechnya, political prisoners and anti-war activists spoke about their use in torture. The defendants in the case of the terrorist attack in Crocus were also tortured with such a device, then the security forces themselves made public photos of torture.
From the files of the arbitration courts, it follows that since the beginning of the SVO in Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense has filed at least 10 lawsuits against the Perm Telephone Plant for disrupting the supply of military field telephones and special communications equipment, “Important Stories” found. The total amount of claims is at least 20.4 million rubles. The texts of some decisions are not available.
For 2021, the last time the Ministry of Defense published information about the income of its officers, can seethat Shamarin was almost a beggar by the standards of the Ministry of Armor (3 million rubles in income per year, a share in an apartment of 82 sq.m. and an apartment of 37 sq.m.). Already in 2022, when he was confirmed as Deputy Chief of the General Staff, his wife Elizaveta Shamarina got a brand new MERCEDES-BENZ AMG GLE 53 4MATIC, which now costs 18 million rubles.
It’s not so simple with the general’s apartments either. His family sued the Ministry of Defense for an 82 sq.m apartment in Podolsk on Akademika Dollezhal Street. The second apartment in Khabarovsk, in the area of DOS Shamarins, was also sued earlier, but from the Khabarovsk administration. In general, placing a general in public housing was very dangerous; everything became the personal property of his family.
Everything is fun with the general's family too. The eldest son became an officer and serves as a military hacker (information security specialist) in the 12th Main Directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry, which is located in the next building from the Main Communications Directorate of the RF Armed Forces, where his dad sat. Probably also an accident.
In addition, the general’s wife Elizaveta was also registered in a two-room apartment of 45 square meters on Shturvalnaya Street – this is in the capital’s South Tushino. The wife loves prestigious cars; the Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe AMG 53 sports car is registered to her. Now the market value of such a car in 2021 is about 12 million rubles.
They got it, and there was shadow accounting. To whom, when and how much. They couldn't work without a roof. So in the notebook there was also a surname that coincided with the then deputy chief of the General Staff, chief of communications of the Armed Forces.
“For general patronage of commercial activities,” the colonel explained in his testimony then.
Is this scheme still alive in one form or another? However, let's wait for official comments from the investigation.
By the way, 5 years ago, charges of fraud were brought against General Shamarin’s predecessor in the position of chief communications officer – General Khalil Arslanov. Then two episodes of particularly large fraud were revealed in the total amount of about 6.7 billion rubles.
According to investigators, Arslanov stole funds during the execution of a government contract for the maintenance and repair of special military equipment.