UK believes corruption in Russian military industry is ‘endemic’

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Jul 28. () –

The UK Ministry of Defence has highlighted “endemic” corruption in Russia’s military industry, which recent reforms and arrests of officials accused of embezzlement and bribery would not address.

“Corruption is endemic in the Russian military industry,” London said in a report by the military intelligence services published on Sunday.

The statement refers to the arrest of the head of the Defense Ministry’s Military Construction Enterprise, Andrei Belkov, on corruption charges related to the company’s procurement. The agency was established in 2019 to achieve greater efficiency under the orders of then Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

“In reality, it is as if the company has been used to extract rents for corrupt officials,” the British Ministry of Defence stressed.

The text also recalls that on July 23, the former director of the Zvezda-Strela missile plant was sentenced to prison for embezzlement and price gouging by a Rostov-on-Don court. And in 2007, an audit by the Ministry of Defence revealed that 70 percent of the ministry’s budget was used for purposes other than those initially intended.

“The Kremlin tolerates a certain amount of corruption, but since the beginning of the war in Ukraine there have been increasing cases against those who were not sufficiently protected at the political level,” London said.