"A whole business arose"

The main personnel officer of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Yuri Kuznetsov was arrested in the case of a bribe. He traded access to GOSTIN, found out "New-Europe"

On the night of May 14, telegram channels reported that the FSB detained the head of the department of personnel of the Ministry of Defense and the former chief of the 8th Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (GOSTINA Protection Service) Yuri Kuznetsov. Already in the morning, the UK confirmed the arrest of the official. The department said that Lieutenant General is suspected of receiving a bribe on an especially large scale.

Kuznetsov fell under the wave of “purges” in the Ministry of Defense: instead of Sergei Shoigu, Andrei Belousov was appointed the head of the department, and the deputy head of Timur Ivanov was taken into custody. Read more about how the chief military personnel officer was arrested and what it can be connected with-in the material of the New-Europe.

Who is Yuri Kuznetsov

Yuri Kuznetsov was born on March 7, 1969 in Mordovia. He graduated from the Krasnodar Higher Military School named after the Army General Stemenko, the Military Academy of the missile forces of strategic appointment named after Peter the Great and the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

In 2010, Kuznetsov headed the 8th Office of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation-the GOSTINA Protection Service. In this post, he stayed for 13 years.

In May 2023, the official was appointed head of the Main Directorate of the personnel of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

"Deliberately tough" detention

One of the first about the detention of Yuri Kuznetsov on May 13 at about 22:00 was informed by the telegram channel "Rybar", which is associated with the former employee of the Ministry of Defense Mikhail Zvinchuk. He emphasized that Kuznetsov’s activity came under the attention of the investigation as the head of the GOSTINA Protection Service. The authors of the publication said that on May 13, Kuznetsov was already absent in the workplace.

As it became known later, on May 13, the 235th garrison military court held a meeting to choose a preventive measure for Kuznetsov. On the morning of May 14, the representative of the UK Svetlana Petrenko said that the official was arrested on charges of receiving a bribe on an especially large scale (part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code).

According to the Cheka-OGPU, the security forces came home to Kuznetsov on May 13 at about 5 a.m. The publication says that they broke the gates and windows in the house of an official in the Istra district, after which they “deliberately harshly” detained him. The wife of Kuznetsov, as the sources of the Cheka-OGPU asserted, were taken for interrogation to the department of the SK.

What Kuznetsov is accused of

According to the SK, Kuznetsov received a bribe from 2021 to 2023, when he headed the GOSTINA protection service. The department said that during the search, more than 100 million rubles were seized from the general in Russian and foreign currency, collection hours and luxury items.

According to the TASS source in law enforcement agencies, Kuznetsov was detained and arrested after interrogation of the second person on a bribe on an especially large scale. The interlocutor of the agency emphasized that the official faces a term of up to 15 years in prison.

"Catcation tool"

An employee of the Ministry of Defense, in an interview from Novo-Europe, said that Kuznetsov was a member of the team of defense deputy minister Timur Ivanov, who was previously arrested on charges of receiving a bribe of more than 1 billion rubles. According to him, the military personnel officer received a “prize” for the issuance and failure of access to state secrets.

“During the construction of the objects of the Ministry of Defense, the heads of contracting organizations had to receive such admission. Sometimes, when concluding contracts, tenders were held, but more often contracts were concluded without any competitions.

If the “respected” contractors whose interests lobbied for serious persons entered MO, then even in case of conflict of interests they could not be denied directly. In this case, the department of Kuznetsov, under far -fetched reasons, refused to make tolerances, and the order was received by another contractor.

Kuznetsov was used as a cutting tool, ”says the interlocutor of Novo-Europe from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

Compared to Ivanov, Kuznetsov received an order of magnitude smaller amounts, says an employee of the military department. According to him, the personnel officer could receive more than 100 million rubles for a separate project, while the total cost of the work done was billions.

What is known about Ivanov’s case

Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was detained and arrested in mid -April. According to the UK, the investigation is conducted under the article on receiving a bribe on an especially large scale. According to the sane article, he faces up to 15 years in the colony.

Together with Ivanov, his business partner Sergei Borodin and businessman Alexander Fomin was arrested. According to the investigation, Borodin, together with the deputy minister, entered into a conspiracy with other people to receive a bribe in the form of “providing property services during contracting and subcontracting work” for the needs of the Ministry of Defense.

Fomin, on the other hand, “contributed to Ivanov’s bribe” and involved in the case of a service in the form of free repair and reconstruction of buildings.

Timur Ivanov has served as deputy defense minister since 2016. In this position, he oversaw the construction of facilities of the department, and also was responsible for the issues of housing and medical support of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. He ruled all the major construction sites of the Ministry of Defense, for example, the Vostochny cosmodrome.

“I suppose that Kuznetsov had his own work. Indeed, even if its share was 1% of the total contract, this figure could reach tens of millions of rubles, ”the Ministry of Defense officer said.

He also emphasized that in addition to Kuznetsov, tolerance to GOSTYAN was also coordinated by the FSB officers, but "this is another department with its own order."

In turn, the source of Novo-Europe in the FSB also confirmed that as the head of the GOSTINA Service for the Protection of Kuznetsov, he was engaged in the execution of documents on secrecy. A special services officer claims that a large number of people participated in the scheme for the sale of access.

“This scheme has worked for many years - it is enough to debug all processes, choose accomplices, set the channels of money. A whole business with firms “helping” in obtaining the necessary documents ”arose to trading to GOSTYNA,

-said the interlocutor of Novy-Europe.

At the same time, he emphasizes that under state secrets, serious information that affects the defense capacity and security of the country is very rarely hidden.

“Just to pour concrete in some places, you need tolerance. There is no tolerance - they will not be allowed to the tender. And in Russia they have long been like to secret everything, indiscriminately. So the reverent attitude to the regime of secrecy is blurred, ”says the FSB officer.

Context

On the eve of the detention of Kuznetsov, Vladimir Putin suggested instead of Sergei Shoigu to appoint the acting Minister of Defense Russian Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov. For the past four years, the official has been oversaw the economic unit in the government.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained the decision to appoint a civil official to the post of head of the Ministry of Defense by the need to introduce innovation. According to him, it is important to enter the economy of the power bloc into the country's economy so that it corresponds to the dynamics of the moment.

Belousov himself promised to solve problems with benefits and medical services for war participants in Ukraine. He also called the setting of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation one of the priority tasks of the Ministry of Defense, while noting that we are not talking about mobilization.