The head of the largest supercomputer manufacturer in Russia was arrested

The Basmanny Court of Moscow sent under arrest Vsevolod Opanasenko, the founder and CEO of the main Russian manufacturer of supercomputers and developer of serial PCs based on Russian processors, JSC T-Platforms, who was detained on the eve of Vsevolod Opanasenko. We are talking about the infamous contract for domestic computers for the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

More. The court arrested Opanasenko for two months until May 24 on charges of inciting abuse of power, Interfax reported. For the same period, another person involved in the case was arrested for abuse of official authority - the head of the communications department of the information technology department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Alexander Alexandrov.

Neither Opanasenko nor Alexandrov plead guilty. The details of the case are unknown.

Details. In 2016, T-Platforms signed a contract with the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the supply of 9,348 computers with the domestic Baikal-T1 processor for 357 million rubles. They were needed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to transfer the theoretical part of the driving license exams to domestic equipment. A computer with a 23-inch monitor and the capabilities of an entry-level office machine (though compatible with encryption according to GOST and with a domestic OS) cost the department 38,000 rubles.

As wrote Vedomosti , T-Platforms belatedly supplied the department with 1,837 computers for 71 million rubles, the rest of the Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to accept due to missed deadlines. The company referred to the fact that the Ministry of Internal Affairs delayed the advance payment and did not provide information to fulfill the contract.

The deal was examined by the Moscow Arbitration Court, which decided that the lack of an advance was not a good reason for non-execution of the state contract, and the company had the necessary information. The company filed an appeal, but dropped it in February 2018. The contract with the Ministry of Internal Affairs accounted for more than a third of the revenue of T-Platforms (976.8 million rubles in 2016).

Subsequently, the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced a competition for the additional supply of computers, which was won by the same T-platforms. At the end of 2018, the company reported that it had completed the contract.

T-Platforms is the largest supplier of supercomputers for Russian scientific institutions and government agencies. The Lomonosov-2 supercomputers for Moscow State University (the former most powerful in Eastern Europe) and the supercomputer for Roshydromet are known.

According to an RBC source close to the company, law enforcement agencies had questions to Opanasenko because of the T-Platforms contract with the Solnechnogorsk Instrument-Making Plant (SPZ), which is part of Rostec.