In bad shape

There have been layoffs at the Ministry of Defense due to the quality of military uniforms

The leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense was outraged by the quality of uniforms for soldiers. Those involved in her order were fired, but the new contractor came under fire from criticism on Russian social networks. Its prices are several times higher than its analogues, and the owners associated with Russian officials may be involved in the raider takeover.

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A month ago, on January 19, a meeting was held at the Ministry of Defense with the participation of the head of the department, Sergei Shoigu, and the Chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, according to two Vorstka sources familiar with the topic of the meeting. It discussed the quality of military uniforms, which are now being supplied, in particular, to the Russian armed forces in Ukraine. Its quality raised questions among military commanders; they criticized the cut and seams of the uniform: in their opinion, the overalls did not meet the requirements for thermal insulation, and servicemen in them complained of cold and discomfort. The dissatisfaction of Shoigu and Gerasimov was so great that as a result of the meeting, three rear generals were fired . The Ministry of Defense works with numerous suppliers of workwear, criticism concerned several of them, including CJSC Kirasa and TsNIITOCHMASH.

Who dresses the soldiers?

Among the enterprises that supply the Ministry of Defense with uniforms and parts of equipment for various needs are CJSC Kirasa, TsNIITOCHMASH, Armocom and many others. It is impossible to find most of the contracts concluded with them in the public domain: since 2017, state-owned companies and departments have received the right not to disclose suppliers and contractors in response to Western sanctions.

However, sometimes companies openly confirm the development of uniforms for the military. Thus, at the beginning of 2023, the general director of Kirasa CJSC, Vladimir Kormushin, in an interview with RIA Novosti, spoke about the creation of a camouflage kit that would make soldiers invisible to thermal imagers. According to him, the effect of “invisibility” is achieved thanks to special fabrics with special dyes. Earlier in Podolsk, TsNIITOCHMASH presented the “Ratnik” equipment. “The equipment gained fame during the Crimean Spring. She organically complemented the image of “polite people,” who have become a new symbol of the Russian armed forces , says the company’s website. “In 2015, to raise the prestige of the armed forces, the equipment was demonstrated at a parade on Red Square in honor of the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.”

To replace the criticized manufacturers, the Ministry of Defense chose a new one - OKB Gardarika. As RBC reported , this company will be ready to present a new uniform with the unofficial name “Semitsvet” in February. The appearance of the uniform “will generally remain the same, the quality of fabrics, seams and insulation will be improved,” said the publication’s source. The Ministry of Defense clarified that the equipment includes a set of summer, windproof, demi-season and winter field uniforms. “In addition, the field uniform includes newly introduced footwear items, such as lightweight special boots, special summer boots, demi-season special boots and rubber (insulated) boots,” the department told RBC. “The military personnel are also provided with winter shoes, the previously existing model of which has been amended.”

In turn, the Zvezda TV channel filmed a report from an unnamed enterprise in the Yaroslavl region, where military uniforms are produced. “Before mass production begins, specialists send small batches of samples to various departments. It is thanks to the feedback from the fighters that it is possible to create a comfortable uniform ,” the report said. — All items of equipment for our fighters are manufactured by domestic manufacturers. More than five thousand sets have already been sewn and will soon be sent to the special military operation zone.”

The OKB that developed the new uniform is owned by 22-year-old Artyom Stepanenko (66%) and Ivan Silchenko (34%). Stepanenko, judging by data from social networks, served in the Preobrazhensky Regiment in 2018–2019 and also studied at MGIMO. “Layout” found Stepanenko’s full namesake on the lists of applicants to several faculties of the university in 2019, butthere was no person with that name on the list of admitted students. The regional publication 76.ru called him the son of the deputy head of the Federal Property Management Agency Dmitry Stepanenko, who also served as head of the government of the Yaroslavl region.

The choice of a new uniform supplier, however, was also not without scandal. According to SPARK, Stepanenko and Silchenko own three more companies - Artiv LLC, Gi LLC and Berkana Design Bureau. All of the listed companies do not have information about concluded contracts; Artiv and Gi (Gardarika Engineering) were created in September 2022, Gardarika in March of the same year.

The history of the Berkana Design Bureau is much longer: this design bureau was founded in 2012 by clothing designer Anna Kharaman, as follows from SPARK data. From the very beginning, it designed and sewed tactical clothing. However, in 2020, Stepanenko and Silchenko became the new co-owners of the company, and at the same time Kharaman left its owners. In 2021, she announced that she had lost control of the company, after which she created a new company - OKB CheGlok . “It seems very likely that Stepanenko and Silchenko simply created a new legal entity OKB Gardarika on March 25, 2022, hired seamstress Ksenia Dugelnaya [she is now the general director of the bureau] as the general director there, and began sewing tactical clothing that Anna Kharaman developed, simply increasing the prices three times ,” a source familiar with the situation in the country told VERSTKA. Ministry of Defense. However, Harman herself later noted that “not a single development of ours has become the property of the Gardarika company; everything we do, we do under the Cheglok brand.”

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Judging by media publications , prices on the OKB website are indeed higher than those of similar enterprises: on the Gardariki website, for example, a military cap cost 4,500 rubles, and at CheGlock it cost 1,350 rubles . After criticism of OKB’s products began online, prices disappeared from its website , and the ill-fated cap is no longer displayed in the “Hats” section. (When the material was being prepared for publication, it became known that Gardarika had completely closed the site).

Kharaman and Stepanenko did not respond to Vorstka’s requests.

The fact that the Ministry of Defense chose the company of a 22-year-old businessman connected with a major regional official as a supplier of uniforms for the military caused sharp criticism in social networks and the media. In this regard, the choice of the Gardarika Design Bureau for cooperation became the topic of “new scandalous discussions,” a source told Vorstka, since the purchase price was “more than significant.” He expressed doubt that the contract would be terminated, but “heads may roll,” the interlocutor believed.

Editorial "Layout"