In Moscow, the 235th garrison military court determined a preventive measure for three officers of the Federal Security Service.

TASS reports.

“The court granted the request of the investigation and chose a measure of restraint in the form of imprisoning Yuri Kravchenko, Artem Sokhin and Sergei Romanov for a period of two months,” a court spokesman said.

At the same time, the agency's source indicated that all those arrested hold high positions in the 6th department of the FSB aviation department.

So, Kravchenko is the head of the 6th department of the aviation department of the FSB, Sokhin is the deputy chief, Romanov is one of the officers of the unit.

“All three servicemen of the FSB aviation were charged under Part 4 of Art.

159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Fraud on an especially large scale") ", - explained a source to TASS.

Along with this, the newspaper "Kommersant" indicates that the FSB officers were involved in the theft of 63,499,600 rubles.

As the newspaper writes, the criminal proceedings concern contracts concluded between the UA FSB and "a small Stavropol company" AsStroy "LLC.

It is noted that this company has repeatedly won tenders for the supply of various machinery and equipment to military units, including units of the border troops located in Stavropol.

So, "AsStroy" was supposed to supply the FSB aviation with a "collapsible warehouse complex for storing aviation technical property for aircraft" under a contract within the framework of the state defense order, and also to install it in Vorkuta.

“Earlier, several more such complexes were placed by the same company in other regions on the orders of the UA FSB,” the article says.

At the same time, the criminal case was initiated on July 14, 2020 by investigators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Komi Republic.

The main defendant is Vazgen Babakhanyan, he is considered the director of the company, who caused damage to the state by fraudulent actions in the execution of a state contract.

  • SIZO-4 "Bear"

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According to the newspaper, at the court hearings, representatives of the investigation claimed that Kravchenko, Sokhin and Romanov communicated with Babakhanyan and his family members, and also misled the leadership of the FSB aviation department.

“In particular, the last of them, according to the GVSU TFR,“ influenced persons who were dependent on him for the purpose of imparting the appearance of the legality of their illegal actions and in order to force them to conclude new government contracts with LLC “AsStroy” and ensure uninterrupted financing this organization, ”the article says.

At the same time, the FSB officers themselves argued during the trial that "they did not commit anything criminal."

In their opinion, all the conditions of the contract were fulfilled and the collapsible warehouse complex, the money for which the investigation considers stolen, was built and is functioning.

Their lawyers also asked the court to order bail, bail, or house arrest for the suspects.

However, the judges were not convinced by the officers' arguments, they were sent into custody until July 14.

They are being held in the Moscow SIZO-4 "Medved" in a special block for current and former employees of power structures.

Colonel Cherkalin's case

In April, the Moscow garrison military court sentenced former FSB officer Kirill Cherkalin to seven years in a strict regime colony for bribery and fraud.

He was also stripped of the rank of lieutenant colonel in the reserve and banned from holding positions in law enforcement for three years after his release.

"By partial addition, finally appoint Cherkalin a sentence of imprisonment for a term of seven years with a sentence of imprisonment in a strict regime colony," said the decision of Judge Vadim Korchagin.

Cherkalin, who was the head of a department of one of the divisions of the Federal Security Service, was detained in April 2019 on suspicion of accepting bribes on an especially large scale.

As it later became known from the materials of the court, in the period from 2012 to 2015, he received a bribe of $ 850 thousand from the head of the commercial firm KB Transportny for general patronage.

Also on russian.rt.com, the media talked about the scheme of receiving bribes by FSB Colonel Cherkalin

The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia went to court with a claim to turn the property of the Cherkalin family into state revenue in the amount of more than 6.3 billion rubles.

During the court hearings, the FSB officer recognized the collection of 810 million rubles, $ 72.7 million, € 8.5 million in state revenue, as well as a Porsche Cayenne car, wrist watches and cufflinks.

In March 2021, Cherkalin asked the court to consider his case in a special order. A month later, as mentioned above, he was sentenced to seven years in prison.