A court in Moscow has sentenced Sergei Bolgarev, head of the 5481 military representative office of the Russian Defence Ministry, to eight and a half years in a strict regime colony, the Russian Investigative Committee has reported.
Bolgarev was found guilty of taking a bribe while fulfilling a state order. He was also charged more than 14 million rubles.
The official was arrested in January 2025. According to the investigation, from 2017 to 2023, the Russian Ministry of Defence signed more than ten contracts with defence companies for a total amount of more than 500 million rubles. The Pyatigorsk Impulse plant acted as a subcontractor in the execution of the contracts, while Bolgarev was responsible for quality control and technical acceptance of the products.
It is alleged that Bolgarev received a bribe totalling over 14 million roubles from the general director of the plant for “formal acceptance of the products”, as well as patronage during the execution of the state defence order.
Sergei Kuzmenko, director of the Impulse plant, which manufactures radiation safety monitoring equipment, is now under arrest in a case of bribing a public official, Russian publication Mediazona reported.
Over the past year, Russia has arrested several high-ranking Defence Ministry officials, including those with the rank of deputy minister. As a rule, they are accused of corruption-related offences.