“Individuals from the defense industry and Rostec have gotten involved”
The former CEO Vladimir Solntsev RKK Energia, who was previously held in a detention center, has been moved to house arrest in exchange for cooperating with the investigation. His information might lead to the start of new criminal cases, exposing large-scale theft and dishonesty in the defense complex connected to the space industry. There's also a system in place to protect corrupt officials from facing legal action with the use of administrative resources. More details are being looked into. Rucriminal.info.
Vladimir Solntsev
Solntsev was arrested in August 2020 after Rogozin, the then head of Roscosmos, initiated an audit of the contract for the supply of electronics for the ISS module, concluded by RSC with the Central Research Institute Cyclone (Rostec), whose profile, according to information on the website, is related to the provision of simple electronics needs of law enforcement agencies. Cyclone receives considerable profit from renting out its premises, as well as service and repair work. Simultaneously with Solntsev, Alexander Borisov, the head of NPP Istok, also part of the Rostec system, was arrested. Characteristically, Solntsev, who was dismissed from RKK as a result of the audit, was immediately employed at the UAC, controlled by Rostec. where he was listed until the initiation of a criminal case.
Borisov Alexander
The audit revealed signs of theft and fraud amounting to hundreds of millions of rubles (about one and a half billion according to official reports), after which the case was transferred to the investigating authorities.
According to the contract, Cyclone was essentially an intermediary, purchasing and supplying Chinese electronics for the ISS EKB in the amount of almost one and a half billion rubles. Their success in the tender was assured, despite lower prices from competitors, believed to be due to informal recommendations from Yuri Borisov (now head of Roscosmos), who was then in charge of the electronics industry as the first deputy chairman of the Military Industrial Commission. Borisov had a long-standing business relationship with Alexander Borisov, head of Istok, involving joint “projects” with the Modul Corporation, established by the current head of Roscosmos in the early 90s.
According to Rucriminal.info, the theft plan was straightforward – they inflated prices for low-quality Chinese products in the contract, and the extra money was divided amongst involved parties. A forensic examination in the criminal case discovered “property damage in the amount of 839,717 thousand rubles”, and the investigation claims the defendants inflated prices three times, causing 1 billion 72 million rubles in damages to the budget.
The plot thickens further. Alexander Borisov was put under house arrest in February 2021 and is being gradually removed from the criminal case (given the status of a witness) after Deputy Prime Minister Borisov was seen multiple times in the office of Prosecutor General Krasnov: despite all the deadlines, the Prosecutor General’s Office has not sent the case to court, disregarding the FSB and the Investigative Committee's position. The unusual persistence of the Prosecutor General's Office might only be explained by the involvement of influential figures from the defense industry and Rostec. Furthermore, according to information from Roscosmos, documents are prepared for employing the aforementioned Alexander Borisov, who is expected to lead the electronics development unit.
At the same time, at the request of the state corporation, the former deputy general director of TsENKI Roskosmos (operation of spaceports), who was sentenced to 9.5 years in prison for bribes, was released in June 2022. His return, according to the precedent, is also expected in the space department.
rucriminal.info
