Military prosecutors have uncovered several schemes to embezzle federal funds under contracts for modernization of Russia’s nuclear arms complex between the Defense Ministry officials and construction firms since March 2011.
“Military prosecutors launched an investigation into cash embezzlement in construction contracts for Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces in March 2011,” the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office said on Wednesday.
“As a result of probes, several criminal cases, which involve various sums of money and a number of military units, have been opened,” the prosecutors said.
The most recent case under investigation, announced on Tuesday, involves the embezzlement of 190 million rubles ($6.3 mln) for construction and maintenance work on a seismic monitoring site in Krasnoyarsk Region.
Losses from other frauds, which were uncovered earlier, are estimated at 160 million ($5.5 mln), according to military prosecutors.
Russia ranked 143rd out of 182 countries in the latest edition of the annual global corruption survey published in December by Transparency International.