Sergey Fridinskiy
Main Military Prosecutor Sergey Fridinskiy gave Interfaks an interview several weeks ago in which he described generally improved crime statistics in the Armed Forces. But he also called the scale of corruption in the military nothing short of “cosmic.”
Fridinskiy told the news service the army’s crime situation is stable and even improving. Crimes by servicemen are down 16 percent, and there are fewer crimes committed by officers. There’s a constantly growing number of military units where no legal violations law are registered. Last year fewer soldiers suffered violence at the hands of their fellow soldiers. But the army’s top law enforcer doesn’t think he’ll run out of work any time soon:
“In particular areas, for example, like saving budget resources allocated for military needs, or corrupt activities, the crime level, as before, is significant. And we’re still far from ridding ourselves of nonregulation relations.”
More than 1,000 military officials were prosecuted for corruption, including 18 general officers — one-third of whom received jail time. Since January 2011, the GVP’s prosecuted 250 bribery cases, many more than in 2010. Fridinskiy singled out the GOZ and commercial firms outsourcing for military units as areas where problems are “not small.” He puts annual Defense Ministry losses to corruption at 3 billion rubles.
This is, interestingly, the same figure he cited in early 2010.
Asked about the types of corrupt schemes in the military, Fridinskiy responded:
“Mainly untargeted use of budget resources, violating the rules and requirements of conducting auctions, competitions, and contractor selection, paying for work not really performed, significant inflating of prices for military products. There are also multifarious kickbacks, bribes, and misuse. Generally, the banal sharing out of budget resources. Devotees of living on state funds especially go for violations of the law. Their scale now is simply stratospheric, I would even say, cosmic.”
Fridinskiy said the GVP’s been active in checking high-level Defense Ministry officials’ asset and property declarations. He said called the scale of violations here “impressive.” More often, he continued, the GVP finds evidence of servicemen and officials engaged in illegal entrepreneurship and commercial activity. He mentioned an unnamed deputy Northern Fleet commander who failed to disclose his wife’s assets, and a Rosoboronpostavka bureaucrat who simultaneously serves as general director of a corporation.
The GVP Chief then shifted gears to talk about barracks violence which he said was down by 20 percent in 2011, with cases involving “serious consequences” declining a third.
Lastly, Interfaks asked about military police, of which Fridinskiy’s skeptical. He emphasized military prosecutors will continue supervising army investigations, but he doubts MPs are ready to run criminal inquiries. He repeated his familiar assertion that they aren’t a panacea; their existence won’t change the social factors behind crime among servicemen.
Would have been interesting if the news agency had asked if this year’s higher pay for officers will cut army crime in 2012.
Russian Defense Policy 