The investigation lead

Since January 2013, in the so -called Oboronservis case, which became the most loud in the history of the investigation of corruption in the Ministry of Defense, the second season began. New episodes, details of financial schemes and chains of personal connections, which invariably lead to ex-minister Anatoly Serdyukov, appear almost daily, and sometimes it is difficult to recall the sequence of events.

When on October 25, 2012, the Investigative Committee posted on his website a message about five criminal cases instituted “on the facts of fraud in the implementation of real estate OJSC OPENSService, few believed that this investigation would be brought to a logical conclusion. Indeed, as a result of the “completion”, the highest officials of the Ministry of Defense would have fallen under the blow, right up to the minister - such a turn of events looked completely implausible.

Anatoly Serdyukov. Shot: 1tv.ru

However, when ten days later, Anatoly Serdyukov was dismissed , and in the case new episodes for tens and hundreds of millions of rubles began to appear one after another, it was hoped that the materials of the largest corruption investigation in the latest history of Russia would still be in court.

OJSC OPENSService was created in 2008 as part of military reform. The joint -stock company, controlled by the Ministry of Defense, was supposed to release military personnel “from their unusual economic functions” and help get rid of “non -core assets”. Oboronservice ruled the activities of other specially created joint -stock companies: Aviaremont, Special Repair, Removement, Ovenstroy, Agroprom, Oboronenergo, Voentorg, Krasnaya Zvezda, Slavyanka .

Inspections are carried out in relation to all companies, but the country's real estate was sold at the greatest damage to the country's real estate at low prices. The investigating authorities still cannot decide on the exact number of criminal cases and the amount of damage. On February 20, 2013, Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika said that 25 criminal cases were instituted in the “Oboronservice”, and the damage from the activities of corrupt officials amounted to five billion rubles. Then Alexander Sorochkin, deputy chairman of the Investigative Committee, said that 13 criminal cases were united in one proceeding, and the Russian budget lost four billion rubles.

Alexander Bastrykin

The next day, Alexander Bastrykin said that during the investigation, an approximate assessment of the damage “from criminal actions” in the Ministry of Defense increased to 13 billion rubles. In this regard, the SK press service was forced to explain that the amount of the above concerns “all crimes committed in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, other troops, military units and bodies”. Of these, the losses from corruption crimes are only 7.5 billion rubles, and the leadership of Oboronservis is related to thefts of four billion.

The main defendants in this case were the former head of the property relations department of the Ministry of Defense, a member of the board of directors of Oboronservice, Evgenia Vasilieva, who is also called the “favorite of Serdyukova”, as well as Ekaterina Smetanova, classmate Vasilyeva, heading the Center for Legal Support “Expert” and LLC MIR. These organizations were involved in assessing the value of real estate of the department in different regions of Russia. Often, Smetanova services were also required to search for customers of property of the ministry.

As a result, under the guise of non -core assets, Oboronservis sold many important objects of the Ministry of Defense. The “unnecessary” was even an oil renewal complex at Cape Mokhnatkina Pakhta in the Murmansk region, which, according to the UK, is the only object that ensures the functioning of the Northern Fleet. The law enforcement agencies managed to prevent this deal in time.

According to the results of 2012, Ekaterina Smetanova, as well as Maxim Zakutailo, her civil husband and former general director of the “District Material Warehouse of the Moscow Air Force”, involved in several episodes of the case, were under arrest. Dmitry Mityaev, head of the LLC LLC LLC, was arrested. Evgenia Vasilieva was under house arrest in her 13-room apartment, but regularly complained about this measure of restraint, demanding to allow her to see Anatoly Serdyukov. The ex-minister himself after several interrogations remained in the status of a witness.

In addition, in the case of Slavyanka OJSC, enterprises controlled by Oboronservis, the general director of the joint -stock company Alexander Yelkin, chief accountant Julia Rotanova, as well as General Director of Safety and Communication CJSC, Andrei Lugansk, with whom Yelkin concluded fictitious contracts for the repair and maintenance of objects of the Ministry of Defense were arrested. As a result of the implementation of a fraudulent scheme, 52 million rubles were stolen from the budget.

In December, Ekaterina Smetanova pleaded guilty, agreed to conclude a deal with the investigation and since then the press has been waiting for her release from custody. But 2013 began not with her release, but with the new interrogation of Serdyukov. Rather, from the SK's nervous reaction to his next refusal to cooperate with the investigation. The department recognized that such a defense strategy is legal, but it was noted that "the refusal to testify can be regarded as the desire to prevent the investigation." In addition, the representative of the Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin said that Serdyukov’s legal status “could change”.

On January 15, a few days after the ineffective interrogation of the ex-minister, it became known about the arrest of the first major official of the Ministry of Defense. Nikolai Ryabykh, the head of the economic department of the ministry, was summoned for interrogation in the case of contracts of Slavyanka OJSC. He refused to testify and was arrested. Then they arrested Konstantin Lapshin, director of the Slavyanka department, which was responsible for the repair.

On January 20, the first sacrifice appeared in the corruption history - the former Major of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Director of Stroyimpuls, Sergey Amelin, died at his cottage from a heart attack. SK did not have time to interrogate the head of the company in the Oboronservis case. According to some reports, Stroyimpuls was engaged in the repair of buildings by order of the Ministry of Defense and was associated with OJSC Slavyanka.

During the investigation, other episodes continued to appear that are not related to its “main topic” - illegal sale of real estate. One of the new criminal cases may be related to the Red Star publishing house, where searches were held in January of this year. Marina Lopatina, Mr. Lava of the publishing house, controlled by Oboronservis, the investigation checks for “involvement in the sale of property” worth $ 10 million.

In addition, at the end of January it became known about suspicions in relation to Aviaremont OJSC, which was headed by Irina Krivich. It is called another "Serdyukov's protege." The investigation has arisen questions about contracts for the supply and repair of simulators for the training of the flight personnel. According to available information, the prices for parts for the simulators “were overpriced several times”, and the same details are included in the estimate twice.

Another The episode may be associated with the contracts of OJSC “Removalization”, which purchased in Kazakhstan at high prices dubious spare parts for homing torpedoes. It was reported that spare parts came from the old Soviet warehouses, and the “lobbyist” of the conclusion of contracts is called adviser to the Minister of Defense Admiral Gennady Suchkov, the former commander of the Northern Fleet, who received a conditional term for the death of the K-159 atomic submarine.

The case of Kirill Korotkov, the ex-financier of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Production and Repair Enterprise of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation”, who allegedly tried to withstand corruption crimes, has been raising especially questions, sent requests to the Prosecutor General, but was suspected of fraud and embezzlement of 45 million rubles. Korotkov believes that the case was fabricated by officials of the Ministry of Defense, with whose crimes he tried to fight. He himself has been under arrest since April 2012. At the end of January, the court extended him the term of arrest, and on February 4, a criminal case was instituted against him and he became the accused.

As for the main line of the case of the “Oboronservice” case related to real estate, its intermediate results, to the present moment, can be called the extension of the term of home arrest Evgenia Vasilyeva, who refused to cooperate with the investigation, and the release of Ekaterina Smetanova, which will probably continue to actively give evidence. Separate interest is and the emerging In the press, information about the personal suspicions of investigators regarding Anatoly Serdyukov, whose signature was supposedly discovered under permission to sell the land plot of the Ministry of Defense on the Black Sea.

The Investigative Committee promises that the investigation of crimes of officials of the Ministry of Defense will continue for at least a year. The main conclusion that the UK made during the investigation of this case was voiced by Alexander Bastrykin on February 21 at an expanded meeting dedicated to the results of the department in 2012.

According to him, those units of ministries that exercise control over the spending of budget funds can cover the abuse of officials and complicate the work of the investigation. He proposed to deprive the state bodies of authority to control the transparency of expenses and transfer them to the “ financial police ”, which the head of the UK has been dreaming for several years.

“The problem is universal. The subordination and control of this kind of departments to the leadership of departments and the conditioned opportunity to influence them does not allow to effectively solve the tasks facing them. It seems that the function of internal control over the expenditure of budgetary funds and by order of state property should be excluded in the future from the competence of the vast majority of state authorities, ”Bastrykin concluded.