It became known what the former deputy chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces told the investigation.
Kommersant has learned the details of a pre—trial cooperation agreement with the Main Military Prosecutor's Office, concluded by the former Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Chief of the Main Communications Directorate (GUS) of the Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant General Vadim Shamarin, accused of accepting a bribe of 36 million rubles. It follows that almost the entire leadership of the GUS was involved in corruption, including his predecessor, Colonel-General Khalil Arslanov. At the same time, one of Vadim Shamarin's deputies convinced him to sign a contract for the supply of drones that were "unclaimed" by the troops.
General Shamarin admitted his involvement in corruption under pressure from evidence gathered by the FSB (the Chekists listened to his meetings even in the bathhouse), shortly after his arrest in May last year.
According to the testimony of the military, given as part of the pre-trial deal, the group, which received kickbacks from entrepreneurs for the opportunity to supply products in the interests of the Ministry of Defense, operated in the GUS even before he joined the GLAVK in 2016. Mr. Shamarin named the then Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Colonel—General Khalil Arslanov, Chief of the General Staff, as its leader, and Major-General Alexander Ogloblin, head of the 1st directorate of the General Staff, his brother Alexei Ogloblin, head of one of the departments of the directorate, Sergei Slyusar, and employee Vyacheslav Nazin as participants.
For example, according to the general's version, the Ogloblin brothers are the beneficiaries of the company with which GUS has been concluding contracts for operational and technical maintenance of cable communication lines worth about 250 million rubles since 2020. According to him, the brothers' illegal profits could amount to at least 200 million rubles.
It should be noted that the criminal case of General Arslanov, at whose request Vadim Shamarin graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff in just a year, has been considered by the 235th garrison Military Court since 2022. The Colonel-General is accused of accepting a bribe in the amount of 12 million rubles and fraud in the amount of about 1.6 billion rubles. Sergei Slyusar, as Kommersant previously wrote, in October 2024 was convicted of bribery in the form of a TV, a scooter and a quadcopter to a fine of 2.5 million rubles. This verdict was challenged by the prosecutor's office. And Alexander Ogloblin, who had previously testified against Khalil Arslanov, was himself sentenced to 4.5 years for embezzlement. After his release from prison, he was arrested in October 2024 for accepting a bribe of 12 million rubles. This happened after Vadim Shamarin testified against him as part of a pre-trial agreement. Alexander Ogloblin's brother Alexei Ogloblin probably remained in witness status, as did Mr. Nazin, who was fired after the arrest of the former head of the State Security Service. Khalil Arslanov's lawyer, Anton Antonov, did not respond to a call from Kommersant, and the general's son, Arslan Arslanov, said that his father had not been questioned or charged in the new episodes.
According to the defendant, he convinced him in 2022 to conclude a state contract with a large commercial company for the supply of about 130 sets of drones to his area. The equipment was planned to be used as a radio repeater for Azart radio stations . The latter provided communication over a distance of only 4-5 km with a required range of over 15 km. To solve the problem, it was decided to install a repeater on the UAV. Rising to a height of about 70 m, such a drone could increase the range of radio communication.
However, according to Vadim Shamarin, already during the demonstration of the drone in one of the military research institutes, it turned out that the drone could only stay in the air for about half an hour, and also had other significant drawbacks. According to General Shamarin, the issue of signal range was eventually resolved by purchasing small-sized power amplifiers and antennas. The defendant stated that the general subordinate to him had a "personal interest" in concluding a deal with merchants, as a result of which the state suffered damage in excess of 160 million rubles.
According to Kommersant, in September 2024, this story resulted in the arrest of Vladislav Pylsky, the project manager of Siberian Navigation Company LLC, related to the execution of this contract.
In addition, as part of the pre-trial agreement, General Shamarin showed willingness to talk about the illegal transfer of buildings and production facilities of a plant located in Sevastopol, receiving kickbacks from the management of a large enterprise in Stavropol, and inflating prices for work carried out to equip the facilities of the Ministry of Defense with digital telecommunications equipment, as a result of which 2 billion rubles were unreasonably allocated from the budget. The defendant also told about the illegal actions of officials of the military department during construction and installation work at various facilities of the Ministry of Defense, which led to the unjustified expenditure of budget money allocated for the purchase and installation of communications equipment for completely different purposes.
What is the famous Deputy Chief of the General Staff Vadim Shamarin?
As for Vadim Shamarin himself, he will stand trial for a bribe of 36 million rubles. from the management of the Perm telephone factory "Telta". According to the TFR, from 2019 to 2023, the Ministry of Defense concluded contracts with the company for the supply of communication devices totaling more than 1.4 billion rubles. According to the investigation, General Shamarin was paid by merchants "to increase the volume and cost of products supplied," as well as general patronage. It should be noted that the first testimony against him was given by ex-General Ogloblin, who acted as an intermediary between the head of the central committee and the merchants. According to General Shamarin, due to the bribes received, he, in particular, paid for the wedding of his eldest son, the renovation of the apartment, and also partially reimbursed the cost of buying a Mercedes car worth 14 million rubles. for his wife.
Now the accused and his lawyers are getting acquainted with the case materials, which the court will consider in a special order. This will allow Mr. Shamarin to expect a more lenient punishment than the terms from 8 to 15 years provided for in Part 6 of Article 290 (receiving a particularly large bribe). THE Criminal Code OF THE Russian Federation. Lawyer Mikhail Pertsev refused to answer questions from Kommersant.
Maria Lokotetskaya
