Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov commented on the situation around the Oboronservis holding, controlled by the Ministry of Defense, in which ICR officers are conducting searches and interrogating officials as part of an investigation into a case of fraud with state property worth more than 3 billion rubles.

He noted that the leadership of the Ministry of Defense is closely monitoring the development of the situation around Oboronservis and is interested in conducting a detailed investigation of all the accusations brought against officials of the holding. At the same time, according to him, it is too early to talk about the involvement of specific officials in fraud with state property.

“Any public statements about the extent of the damage and the involvement of specific officials of the Oboronservis holding, which are made before the end of the investigation, are nothing more than versions,” the press service of the military department quotes the minister as saying.

He noted that according to Russian legislation, the holding “is an independent commercial organization that has its own charter regulating its service activities both in the interests of the armed forces and other customers.”

According to Serdyukov, “it is impossible to allow any disruptions in issues of service maintenance of the Armed Forces, which are resolved by the structural divisions of Oboronservis.”

Earlier, the Investigative Committee reported that five criminal cases were opened on the facts of fraud in the sale of real estate, land plots and shares belonging to the Oboronservis state holding. It was also reported that searches were being carried out in the holding company, controlled by the Ministry of Defense, documents were being confiscated, and officials were being interrogated.

According to the Investigative Committee, officials of the Ministry of Defense sold the most liquid and prestigious objects, land plots and shares of Oboronservis at reduced prices to commercial structures affiliated with it. Before the sale of these objects, significant budgetary funds were invested in them, and they were often bought with money stolen from Oboronservis itself.

Preliminary damage from the sale of only eight real estate properties amounted to more than 3 billion rubles, the Investigative Committee reported, without specifying the exact number of such objects.

At the same time, the name of one of the defendants in the case became known, in particular, according to the Investigative Committee, as part of the investigation, a search was carried out at the apartment of the former head of the property relations department of the ministry, Evgenia Vasilyeva.

According to news agencies, the head of the department, Anatoly Serdyukov, arrived at the site of the searches.

As Interfax later reported , the Minister of Defense did not appear at the government meeting today.

It is worth noting that until 2011, the current head of the Ministry of Defense, Anatoly Serdyukov, was the chairman of the board of directors of Oboronservis OJSC. In 2011, he was replaced in this post by Alexander Shlyakhturov, who previously held the post of Chief of the GRU of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

Serdyukov commented on searches at Oboronservis