The Balashikha Garrison Military Court yesterday sentenced an officer of one of the air defense units of the Moscow Military District, who illegally recruited soldiers subordinate to him to work at the dachas of his friends. According to the investigation, on June 27, 2002, the division commander, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Boronenkov, gave the order to five soldiers to go to the Istrinsky district, to the dacha plot of his friend, who was just conducting construction. The owner of the cottage instructed the anti-aircraft gunners to dig a deep drainage trench. On July 2, when the work was almost completed and the soldiers were working at the bottom of the trench, a ground collapse suddenly occurred. Three soldiers found themselves under a multi-meter rubble. When rescuers and an ambulance arrived at the scene, Private Dmitry Kiselev was already dead, another soldier received numerous fractures. Having examined the investigation materials, the court yesterday found Lieutenant Colonel Boronenkov fully guilty of exceeding official authority causing grave consequences and sentenced him to four years in prison with a suspended sentence of three years. The court also satisfied the request of the state prosecutor to recover 100 thousand rubles from the military unit as compensation for moral damage to the mother of the deceased, as well as 18 thousand rubles for the treatment of the second victim.
