According to russian media, the head of the russian Defense Ministry’s Military Construction Company, Andrei Belkov, has been arrested on charges of corruption related to procurement activity. The Military Construction Company was set up in 2019 specifically to achieve efficiencies with the then Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu praising the “special internal and external audit regime” that the company would bring to Defense. In reality it is likely the company has been used to extract rents by corrupt officials, the UK Defense Intelligence reports.
Separately on July 23, 2024, the former director of the Zvezda-Strela tactical missile plant was sentenced to prison for embezzlement and price inflation by a court in Rostov-on-Don.
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Corruption is endemic in the russian defence industry. In 2007, an audit commissioned by the then Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov revealed that 70% of Ministry of Defense budgetary resources were used for purposes other than those officially designated. Some of this corruption is tolerated by the Kremlin, but there have been increasing crackdowns on those not sufficiently politically protected since the start of the war in Ukraine.
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