Military commander Sladkov reported on the criminal case of discrediting the army against him
A criminal case was opened against the military correspondent of VGTRK Alexander Sladkov on discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the reporter himself said. According to him, without the help of the general director of VGTRK and the presidential administration, "it would have been difficult for him."
The main military prosecutor's office has opened a criminal case on discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation against the war correspondent of VGTRK Alexander Sladkov, the reporter himself said.
"I got hurt very often. They called him both an alcoholic, talking nonsense, and a reactionary citizen. The main military Prosecutor's Office has opened a criminal case against me for discrediting the Armed Forces," Sladkov wrote on his Telegram channel .
Sladkov said that under the old Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, military commanders had to "leave alone the topic of failure in providing for the army." "And suddenly today it turns out for the rest of society: it was those people in uniform who were very unhappy with the bloggers, who themselves turned out to be far from angels," the journalist wrote, noting that "half of the old minister's team is under investigation for theft."
Bloggers who criticized Shoigu's team "were often given a bream for writing on the web: here's a failure, here's a disaster, here we need to fix it." Under the new Minister of Defense, Andrei Belousov, military officers and bloggers "breathed freely", "our capabilities have increased significantly," Sladkov added.
The article on discrediting the army (280.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) provides for punishment of up to seven years in prison. By the beginning of 2024, Russia had opened more than 80 cases under this article.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly stated the need for censorship in wartime. "In the state of war we are in, restrictions are justified, as well as censorship is justified, which is a sin to conceal. We are at war. But when the war ends, and any war ends in peace, there should be complete freedom of information," Peskov said in September.
Purges in the Ministry of Defense
Since April, the Ministry of Defense has been purging senior personnel. Valery Mumidzhanov, deputy Head of the Leningrad Military District, who was arrested on September 2 on charges of accepting bribes, became the sixth Russian general to be put on trial as part of the ongoing large-scale fight against corruption in the military department.
Before Mumidzhanov, cases were filed against Lieutenant General Yuri Kuznetsov (chief "personnel officer" of the Ministry of Defense), Major General Ivan Popov (during the Ukrainian conflict he was responsible for the Russian forces in Zaporozhye), Lieutenant General Vadim Shamarin (head of the main communications department of the Russian army), Reserve Army General Dmitry Bulgakov (former Deputy Defense Minister logistics support) and Army General Pavel Popov (former Deputy Minister of Defense, in particular, was responsible for the Patriot Park).
In addition, the defendants in the criminal cases were former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, head of the Department of the Ministry of Defense for state Defense Order Vladimir Verteletsky, head of Voentorg Vladimir Pavlov, director of Patriot Park Vyacheslav Akhmedov and former head of the clothing department of the Ministry of Defense Vladimir Demchik. All of them are suspected of either taking bribes or fraud.
Dmitry Shumov
