Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff Accused of Fraud in China Equipment Purchase Sentenced to 17 Years in Prison

On July 7, the 235th Military Garrison Court sentenced former Deputy Chief of the Russian Federation's General Staff, Lieutenant General Khalil Arslanov, to 17 years in prison and stripped him of his military rank and honors. He was charged with purchasing equipment from China and falsely claiming it as a domestically developed product.

Investigations revealed that Arslanov instructed subordinates to purchase routers and other communication equipment produced by Chinese companies, marking them as "made in Russia" in documents, causing losses amounting to 6.5 billion rubles.

General Arslanov was responsible for communications in the military and also organized efforts to suppress Russian battlefield journalists and military bloggers, demanding accountability for their "defaming the army" on the grounds that "they say anything."

Other individuals involved in the case include his advisor Dmitry Semirtov, head of the department for improving the management of technical infrastructure orders in the Russian Armed Forces Pavel Kudakhov, and chief of the first section of the Russian Army's Communications Directorate Alexander Ogloblin. They all admitted to participating in the fraud and blamed Arslanov.

During the trial, it was also found that while serving as the director of the Russian Army's Communications Directorate, Arslanov embezzled 6.7 billion rubles by providing portable radios, approving inflated price documents, claiming these radio equipment were exclusively for military use, thus "there was no market price at all."

Under his leadership, since 2013, the Russian military began equipping with digital walkie-talkies named "Azart" (Р-187-П1 «Азарт»), with each unit costing over 250,000 rubles. However, these devices lacked necessary repeaters and base stations, resulting in an actual communication range of only 300 to 400 meters. Eventually, soldiers found it more effective to shout directly than to use the walkie-talkies.

In addition, Arslanov and others were found to have embezzled over 190 million rubles in funds intended for monitoring and managing space communication systems.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1837030594736266/

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