Russia Says a Fifth of Defense Budget Stolen by Corrupt Officials, Generals and Contractors

Russia Says a Fifth of Defense Budget Stolen

May 24, 2011

Reuters - A fifth of Russia's state defense spending is stolen every year by corrupt officials, dishonest generals and crooked contractors, Russia's chief military prosecutor said in an interview published on Tuesday.

President Dmitry Medvedev says endemic corruption is holding back Russia's development, but anti-bribery groups say the problem has become worse since Medvedev was steered into the Kremlin by his mentor Vladimir Putin in 2008.

"Huge money is being stolen -- practically every fifth rouble and the troops are still getting poor quality equipment and arms," chief military prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky told Russia's official gazette, Rossiiskaya Gazeta. "Every year more and more money is set aside for defense but the successes are not great," he said, adding that kickbacks and fictitious contracts were being used to defraud the state.

Fridinsky did not give specific figures, but Russia has set more than 1.5 trillion roubles ($53 billion) for national defense in its 2011 budget, indicating theft of more than $10 billion a year from the sector.

While western countries roll back defense spending Putin has promised to spending nearly 20 trillion roubles over the next decade to renew the country's rusting armaments with new submarines, nuclear missiles and air defense systems.

Medvedev has repeatedly warned Russia's notoriously corrupt defense sector to clean up its act and this month sacked several industry chiefs over what the Kremlin said were unfulfilled contracts.

Russia is still the world's second-largest arms exporter but its defense industry is riddled with corruption and thousands of young men each year try to bribe their way out of having to do their national service.

Corruption is a way of life in Russia, from small bribes slipped into the pockets of traffic policemen or doctors to the vast kickbacks which investors say senior officials demand for access to state contracts in the natural resources sectors.

Transparency International rated Russia joint 154th out of 178 nations in its corruption perceptions index last year, along with Cambodia, Kenya and Laos. It was Russia's lowest ranking since the index began in 1995. In 2009 it was 146th.

Russia was perceived to be more corrupt than any other member of the G8, G20 or even peers such as India, China and Brazil, which were ranked at 87th, 78th and 69th.

When asked if he thought senior officials were involved in the corruption, Fridinsky said:

"Work it out for yourself."

Whistleblower Says Russian Troops Fed Dog Food

May 19, 2011

Reuters - Russian Interior Ministry troops were fed dog food earlier this year to save money, a former officer in the ministry said Thursday.

A rare whistleblower in Russia's expansive security forces, ex-Major Igor Matveyev said officers tried to cover up the scandal and other alleged wrongdoing at the Interior Ministry troops base where he served in the far east city of Vladivostok.

Matveyev, who served in Russia's wars against Chechen separatists in the 1990s, said he was ordered dismissed after posting a video on the Internet this month alleging widespread corruption in the Interior Ministry forces.

No one at the ministry's troop unit was immediately available to comment on his allegations.

"It's embarrassing to say but soldiers here were fed dog food. It was fed to them as stew," Matveyev said in an interview with Reuters, adding that dog food labels were covered up with labels reading 'premium quality beef'.

He said he would contest a dismissal order issued by a superior after he posted the nearly 10-minute video, in which he asked President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to intervene.

"It took me a month to determine through various reports exactly what was happening," he said by phone from Vladivostok, some 6,400 km (4,000 miles) east of Moscow.

The Interior Ministry troops command was cited by Russian agencies as saying that a number of the incidents Matveyev described had occurred, but that they had long ago been dealt with and that an investigation had been started.

President Dmitry Medvedev has said rampant corruption in the ranks is one of the biggest problems facing Russia's security forces.

The Interior Ministry maintains units of troops across Russia responsible for domestic security. They are separate from the army, which comes under the Defense Ministry.

Russia's security services are at odds with themselves as they undergo unpopular reforms that are aimed at restructuring the military's officer and troop structure, which critics such as Matveyev say is ridden with corruption.

"This doesn't happen by accident, it is a system. Reforms are ongoing and we have to come out and say these things, we have to pay attention to these issues," he said.

He added that 18 illegal migrant laborers were housed at the Vladivostok base for a month and a half and were used for clean-up and construction jobs.

"They were Koreans or Chinese, I don't know because they did not have any documents," he said.

He also said that property on the base had been sold off without permission to make money for the officers, but did not specify what had been sold or to whom.

The authorities have not said whether they are investigating that specific allegation.