The 235th garrison military court passed a sentence on the head of the department of the main organizational and mobilization department of the General Staff (GOMU GSh) of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Colonel Ivan Mertvishchev. At first, the officer was accused of taking a bribe in the form of a Bosch washing machine for a positive review of the work of the military commissariat of the Ramenki district during the draft, but later the actions of Mr. Mertvishchev were reclassified as attempted fraud. As a result, the officer received a fine of 400 thousand rubles. and a two-year ban on holding public office. The convict has already written a report with a request to send him to the NWO zone.
Before the announcement of the verdict, the head of the department of the main organizational and mobilization department of the General Staff, Colonel Ivan Mertvishchev, told the court that he pleaded guilty to initially intending to deceive the leadership of the military commissariat of the military registration and enlistment office of the Ramenki district. It was about the fact that Mr. Mertvishchev had to sign a report on the results of checking the work of the military registration and enlistment office for conscription into the Armed Forces.
According to the officer, it was Ramensky that did not appear in the plans of inspections of the military commissariats near Moscow, and he decided to play on this.
Colonel Mertvishchev explained that he wanted to earn money because he urgently needed a washing machine for the bathroom after the renovation of the apartment.
In the debate of the parties, the state prosecutor asked the court to sentence the colonel to two years in a general regime colony as a punishment. In turn, the defense and the defendant himself asked the court to limit the punishment not related to deprivation of liberty. They insisted that the request for a washing machine was only an attempt to cheat, and not a bribe.
As Kommersant previously told, the criminal case under Part 5 of Art. 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (taking a bribe associated with extortion) in relation to Ivan Mertvishchev, the 517th Military Investigation Department (VSO) of the ICR initiated in November 2022. It was established that the officer of the General Staff took advantage of the draft campaign and contacted the military commissar Ramenok a week before it began. In a telephone conversation, the colonel made it clear to the military commissar that things with the recruitment of conscripts in his military registration and enlistment office are going very badly, and even if everything looks decent according to the documents, he will find something to complain about and report “upstairs”. So that the military commissar would not have problems in the future, an officer of the General Staff, based on the materials of the case, offered the military commissar to purchase a washing machine for him worth at least 70 thousand rubles. She became the Bosch WHA122W1BL chosen by the colonel, bought in the most expensive configuration – for 72 thousand 130 rubles. On the request of Colonel Mertvishchev, the employees of the military registration and enlistment office reported to the department of military counterintelligence, which took further development of events under its control. The new owner of the washing machine was detained by the FSB near the house on Tvardovsky Street in Moscow, where they brought it to him.
As a result, the presiding judge Artem Karpov came to the conclusion that in the actions of Ivan Mertvishchev, who did not even have time to use the washing machine he received, there was an attempt at fraud.
As a result, Mr. Karpov reclassified the accusation from paragraph “b” of Part 5 of Art. 290 (taking a bribe associated with extortion) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, for part 3 of Art. 30 and part 3 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (attempted fraud committed by a person using his official position) and sentenced Colonel Mertvishchev to a fine of 400 thousand rubles, and also banned him from holding positions in state bodies for two years. At the same time, the court took into account extenuating circumstances: the colonel pleaded guilty, took part in hostilities in Chechnya, and has several orders. Moreover, the officer, already under trial, wrote a report with a request to send him to the NVO zone.
