During his speech at an expanded meeting of the board of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office (GVP) last Thursday, which was devoted to the results of work in the 1st half of the year, the head of the department, Sergei Fridinsky, reported only one positive figure - a decrease of 11% compared to the same period in 2010 crimes registered specifically in the troops and military formations. This can be said to be a significant decrease, says the chief military prosecutor, "the result of joint work with military courts, command, security agencies in the troops, investigative bodies and civil society institutions."
At the same time, it is impossible to call the current situation in the army completely safe. The damage to the state from manifestations of corruption in the Russian army in the first half of 2011 amounted to 620 million rubles, and bribery and extortion among the troops became widespread.
Sergei Fridinsky said that over the past six months, 16 thousand violators of the law were brought to criminal and administrative responsibility, and 700 million rubles were returned to the state treasury thanks to the work of military prosecutors.
The Chief Military Prosecutor used to say that almost every 5th budget ruble is being stolen in the sphere of the state defense order, and today he has added fuel to the fire of the complicated relations between President Dmitry Medvedev and Defense Minister A. Serdyukov. According to the head of the GVP, over the past 18 months, prosecutorial inspections in the field of the state defense order revealed almost 1,500 offenses, the damage from which amounted to many hundreds of millions of rubles. The main reasons for this are shortcomings in the work of ordering structures, the dishonesty of the heads of some defense enterprises, the lack of necessary control by military inspectors and customers over the quality of the supplied products, and often the most common illegal actions.
S. Fridinsky noted that military prosecutors, together with the command of the Ministry of Defense, made significant adjustments to the famous orders No. 400 and No. 115, which regulate monetary surcharges for officers and which led to a wave of high-profile corruption scandals in the army. The biggest scandal occurred in the Lipetsk Aviation Center, after the pilot Igor Sulim announced the extortions from the center's command. S. Fridinsky also noted that instead of instantly reacting, the Air Force command began to exert strong pressure on the pilots. By the way, today criminal cases based on the established facts of extortions are being investigated in almost all military districts and fleets.
Separately, S. Fridinsky dwelled on offenses related to the use of federal property. These violations, the chief military prosecutor noted, are now widespread. As one of the latest examples, S. Fridinsky cited the situation with a military town in Krasnodar. It is estimated at more than 1.5 billion rubles, but it was put up for free auction at a price more than 3.5 times lower and, at the request of military prosecutors, was temporarily withdrawn from sale. In total, over the past 18 months, military prosecutors have established more than 30 thousand such violations, the damage to the state from criminal acts exceeded 1 billion rubles.
Also, the chief military prosecutor calls it unacceptable that local government offices, with the tacit consent of some commanders, are selling land for construction to the right and to the left, which belong to restricted zones and areas near bases and arsenals with ammunition and weapons. “The consequences of the explosions in Kazinka, Pugachevo and Urman showed what a great danger these acts represent for a large number of people. On the instructions of the President of Russia D. Medvedev, the territorial and military prosecutors are now checking the state of affairs on the ground and, if violations are detected, they will cancel the illegal decisions,”S. Fridinsky said.
And although in general today crime in the army has decreased by 10%, at the same time, the growth of crimes related to violence continues - more than 2 thousand servicemen have already suffered from them. A significant part of the crimes were committed by military personnel performing military service, and, as a rule, this occurs on ethnic grounds. This indicates that the army cannot defeat the lawlessness that conscripts from the Caucasian republics continue to arrange. The most common crimes in this case are “bodily harm” and extortion. Do not lag behind the conscripts and officers. According to S. Fridchinsky, the number of assaults among Russian officers this year has increased by more than 15%, and among junior officers - twice. For example, over the past 6 months, 75 young graduate lieutenants have been prosecuted for assault, who just recently entered the army and were appointed to various command positions.
Some analysts are inclined to believe that representatives of the military justice should be partially responsible for the growth of crime in the military. First of all, this is justified by the fact that often the servants of the law themselves are involved in various corruption schemes. The introduction of the military police, according to S. Fridinsky, could contribute to a decrease in the number of crimes in the army. However, at the same time, the chief military prosecutor noted that the level of crime, as a rule, is determined by social factors, and not by the presence in the armed forces of a special body for the protection of law and order.
