A case has been sent to the Khamovnichesky District Court of Moscow against three entrepreneurs who are accused of being involved in the theft of almost 500 million rubles from the Ministry of Defense. According to Kommersant, this money was allocated for the reconstruction of the Terekta and Turgai landfills, which Russia leases from Kazakhstan. Since the 1950s, these test sites have been used to test and research unmanned rocket and guided weapons.
A criminal case under the article on fraud on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code) was initiated in October 2019. As follows from the case file, in November-December 2015 Gradstroyproekt LLC received a contract for the reconstruction of the Terekta and Turgay landfills. For these purposes, 760 million rubles were allocated from the budget, of which 488.2 million rubles were stolen.
Initially, Igor Berdnikov, deputy general director of Gradstroyproekt, a former military man and participant in the war in Afghanistan, as well as businessman Mikhail Stakhanov, was accused of embezzlement. Both made a deal with the prosecutor's office, their cases were considered in a special order. Berdnikov received six years in prison, Stakhanov – three and a half years. On the basis of their testimony, charges were brought against Vadim Lesnykh, Vasily Titov and Andrey Chesnokov, through whose companies, according to the investigation, the stolen money was withdrawn. They all plead not guilty.
One of the defendants, Chesnokov, testified in the past against several security officials who extorted bribes from his companies.