Fraud in the construction of fortifications in the Bryansk region

More than 20 contractor companies may be associated with it

In the Bryansk region, a criminal case has been opened regarding fraud by an organized group or on an especially large scale (part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code) during the construction of protective structures. “Verstka” learned about this from a court decision to freeze the accounts of one of the defendants in the case.

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The prosecutor's office demanded that the accounts of the ex-owner of one of the contractors be frozen

The case is being investigated by the Bryansk department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In the spring of 2025, the police applied to the Sovetsky District Court of Bryansk with a petition to seize the accounts of the ex-owner of the local construction company Vodokanal Dubrovsky, Svetlana Afanasyeva. As follows from the court decision, the woman was charged with fraud in the construction of fortifications.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs asked to seize 20.8 million rubles, which, as they believed, should have gone to Afanasyeva in the near future. The court of first instance made a contradictory decision: it rejected the operative part, but granted the motivation part of the petition. i Then the prosecutor's office got involved in the case. On May 6, 2025, the first deputy prosecutor of the Bryansk region filed a complaint with the regional court. On May 29, 2025, the Bryansk Regional Court arrested Afanasyeva’s accounts.

The Vodokanal Dubrovsky company is one of the large regional government contractors. In March 2025, the Mash telegram channel reported that searches were carried out at the company's office. According to the channel, security forces seized documents related to the construction of fortifications. However, no criminal case was reported.

Then, in March, as Vorstka discovered, the prosecutor’s office of the Bryansk region filed a lawsuit against Vodokanal in the local arbitration court. The prosecutor's office asked to seize the company's accounts in five banks and company cars. The department, as stated in the court decision, feared that Vodokanal could withdraw funds from circulation. The court refused to impose arrest. The prosecutor's office, according to the court, did not provide evidence that Vodokanal Dubrovsky was taking “any measures to withdraw funds.”

The Bryansk prosecutor's office filed more than 20 lawsuits on the same day to freeze the accounts of local companies

Vodokanal Dubrovsky is not the only construction company whose accounts the Bryansk prosecutor’s office is asking to seize. On March 10, 2025, another 20 claims were registered in the Arbitration Court of the Bryansk Region, in which the Russian Ministry of Defense was involved as a third party. The cases are being considered behind closed doors; it is unknown whether they are all related to protective structures. The supervisory authority lost at first instance and on appeal.

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Among the companies whose property the Bryansk prosecutor's office wants to seize are, for example, large local construction companies Dorstroy 32 and Bryanskagropromdorstroy . In October 2024, the governor of the Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, expressed gratitude to them for their participation in the construction of fortifications.

“I want to say thank you to all the workers of road organizations who, in difficult, sometimes even dangerous conditions, completed this work as quickly and efficiently as possible! Thank you for your courage and professionalism!” he wrote in his Telegram channel.

“Verstka” tried to contact Svetlana Afanasyeva and other contractors, but they did not answer calls and messages.

“Hundreds of kilometers” of barrier structures have been laid in the border areas of the Bryansk region

According to Bogomaz, “hundreds of kilometers” of barrier structures have been built in the border areas of the Bryansk region. Local authorities did not publicly disclose the names of all contracting firms that received government contracts for the construction of fortifications. The total cost of the barrier line was also not announced.

In April 2023, the capital construction department of the Bryansk region included in its schedule the purchase of fortification construction. It was planned that the region would spend 1.7 billion rubles on construction in 2023 and another 418 million rubles in 2024.

Thefts of billions in the construction of protective structures in the Kursk and Belgorod regions are already being investigated

As Vorstka previously reported, the authorities allocated 3.2 billion rubles for the construction of defense structures in the Kursk region . Some of the fortifications were supposed to be built at the beginning of 2023, but the contractor KTK Service did not pay workers wages for months and eventually filed for bankruptcy, and the fortifications were never completed.

The governor of the Kursk region, Alexey Smirnov, was first dismissed from his post and then arrested on charges of fraud. Telegram channels report that while in a pre-trial detention center, Smirnov testified against his predecessor in the governor’s chair, Roman Starovoit , who at that time served as Minister of Transport. On July 7, Starovoit was fired from his post as minister, and on the same day he committed suicide.

The Prosecutor General’s Office also demands the recovery of almost 1 billion rubles from a group of persons involved in theft during the construction of protective structures on the border of the Belgorod region with Ukraine. The agency suspects Deputy Governor Rustem Zainullin and several businessmen of theft. According to the prosecutor's office, the money was withdrawn through fictitious contracts, and the facilities themselves did not meet defense security requirements.

Photo: Anti-tank barriers “dragon’s teeth”. DSK "Capital"

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