Corruption in the Russian army: how the family of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces makes money on patriotism

While tens of thousands of Russian soldiers are dying in Ukraine because of the Kremlin’s ambitions, Russian generals are making billions. The Russian service of the BBC published an investigation about the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces of the RF Armed Forces Oleg Salyukov and his family. The general’s relatives organize patriotic holidays at public expense, buy houses, apartments and land plots, FREEDOM reports.

In the parade on May 9 in Moscow, according to the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu, this year more than 10 thousand people and 125 pieces of weapons and military equipment will take part. For the 10th time in a row, Commander-in-Chief of the Land Forces of the RF Armed Forces General Oleg Salyukov will command the main military parade of Russia. And to organize this military holiday, like many other patriotic events, is an event agency, the owner of which is Salyukov’s daughter-in-law. According to Russian journalists, the general’s family earns millions on contracts with the military.

“In 2019, Dina Salyukova opened the Avangard military-patriotic education center for youth. Although according to the documents, the founders are the Moscow City Hall, the government of the Moscow Region and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The center received 2 billion rubles each from two regions and 28.5 hectares of land in the Patriot park, ”the Russian Air Force investigation says.

And this is just one of the many business cases of the creative agency Dina Salyukova. It positions itself as a company organizing business events and promises its customers that “close interaction with relevant government agencies allows for a dialogue between business and government.”

Dina and her husband Dmitry – respectively, the son of General Salyukov – receive millions of rubles for organizing events for the military and officials. Using their connections with the Ministry of Defense, they easily receive government orders.

“We are very close with the Ministry of Defense. I would even say too close, ”admitted the owner of the creative agency HQ Agency Dina Salyukova in correspondence with a potential client.

Therefore, the Salyukov family does not live in poverty. In the information on the income of the son of the general for 2021, 4 residential buildings with an area of ​​more than a thousand square meters are indicated. m and 5 land plots – a total of 2 hectares. In Moscow, his family had 2 apartments. A year before the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Dmitry and Dina declared more than 12 and 8 million rubles, respectively. The Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, General Oleg Salyukov, for example, earned more than 10 million rubles in 2019. And this is not counting the apartment worth 70 million, which was presented to the general by the state, as reported by The Insider, citing an extract from Rosreestr.

At this time, payments to the mobilized are delayed in 52 regions of Russia. In Tatarstan, families of recruits are given tea sets instead of help. The soldiers themselves record videos from the front line, in which they complain that they have no water, no food, no ammunition.

“We appeal to the public and the military command of the RF Armed Forces. At the moment, we are being sent to assault the fortified positions, which will not be supported by the work of our artillery and the work of our armored vehicles. Being in positions on the front line, for 15 days we could not get the suppression of enemy firing points. In this regard, we suffered very heavy losses, ”the video message of Russian servicemen from the reconnaissance company of the 504th tank regiment says.

In Buryatia, pensioners send a broken down Soviet GAZ-69 to soldiers. The car is at least 50 years old. Necessary repairs will be done at the expense of a local entrepreneur.

And in Krasnoyarsk, ordinary citizens collect money for military operations. After all, according to a local official, there are no funds for the treatment of the military. The cost of one planned operation is 1.3 million rubles. They collect on the wounded and the wounded themselves. The mobilized people speak about this in one of the videos that appeared on the network.

“Money fees. If the money did not give up, then people were immediately promised to be thrown somewhere on the front. This happened systematically. The wounded people were discharged from the hospitals after 3 days, without providing any medical assistance, without pulling out the fragments, they were sent back to the front line and took another 20 thousand from them – 20 thousand for the wounded, ”says the servicemen of the Storm detachment from of the 5th Brigade of the RF Armed Forces.

In 2022, 60 officials were prosecuted in Russia for corruption in the defense sector. According to experts, corruption is one of the main problems of the Russian army.

“It is difficult to aggravate what is total, and corruption in Russia is total: from the bottom to the very top. On the one hand, this is a minus, because Russia is sinking. On the other hand, this may be a plus for Ukraine. If the Russian Army had not been plundered, if it had not been distributed to its people, but if it had been in a competitive struggle, then, perhaps, the Russian Army would have succeeded. But since everything has been stolen in the Russian Army, there can be no question of Kyiv in 3 days, there can be no talk of Donbass, ”concludes Ilya Davlyatchin, a journalist from the We Can Explain Telegram channel.

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