Former deputy chief of Russian army's general staff jailed for 17 years in fraud case
A closed-door military court found Khalil Arslanov, a colonel general, and others guilty of stealing some 1.6 billion roubles from state contracts with Voentelecom, a company that provides telecommunications services and equipment to the Russian military.
Arslanov was also found guilty of extorting a 12 million rouble bribe from the head of a military communications company.
Two other men, Colonel Pavel Kutakhov, and Igor Yakovlev, whom TASS described as a military pensioner, were found guilty alongside Arslanov and received seven and six years in prison, respectively.
A former head of the Russian military's communications unit, Arslanov served as deputy chief of the army's General Staff from 2013 until he was removed from office in 2020. He was named a colonel general in 2017.
Russia has stepped up prosecutions of top defence officials as a series of corruption scandals have engulfed the highest echelons of the Russian military establishment in the past year.
This month, former deputy defence minister Timur Ivanov was sentenced to 13 years on corruption charges, the harshest sentence yet in the string of graft cases.
($1 = 78.6955 roubles)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
31 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Asia Set for Cautious Open Ahead of Ukraine Talks: Markets Wrap
Asian markets are set for a tepid start ahead of talks between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskiy, after the US-Russia summit on the Ukraine war ended without a ceasefire. US equity futures contracts were little changed in early trading after the S&P 500 Index closed lower on Friday, while the dollar held in a narrow range against major peers.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Trump to meet Zelensky before European join larger session
President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will hold a meeting together on Monday afternoon before they are joined by European officials traveling to Washington for the key talks on the future of the Russia-Ukraine war. Two sources told NewsNation's Libby Dean and Kevin Bohn that Trump and Zelensky will hold the initial meeting, which will also be attended by Vice President Vance. That will be a rerun of the participants from an Oval Office meeting in February that went badly off the rails as Vance and Trump criticized Zelensky over his handling of the war, and for not being more appreciative of U.S. support. The February meeting immediately underscored fears in Europe that the U.S. under Trump was sliding away from Ukraine and toward Russia over the conflict. Those fears were revisited when Trump decided to hold a meeting on Friday in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a significant public relations win for the leader of the Kremlin, who has been unwelcome in Western countries since the start of the war. European leaders planning to attend the larger meeting on Monday include European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who has developed a strong relationship with Trump, is also to attend. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday pushed back at suggestions that Zelensky would be pushed into an unacceptable deal by the Trump administration. 'They're not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelensky from being bullied,' Rubio said Sunday during an interview with CBS 'Face the Nation' host Margaret Brennan. 'They're coming here tomorrow because we've been working with the Europeans. We talked to them last week. There were meetings in the U.K. over the following, the previous weekend.' Rubio, who attended Friday's summit along with Trump's envoy to the region Steve Witkoff, also said the U.S. had asked Putin for concessions to reach a peace deal. Rubio's appearances on Sunday shows seemed intended to convey a number of messages, including that the U.S. was trying to broker an acceptable deal that could garner Ukraine's support.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump shares First Lady Melania's letter to Putin as he rages over coverage of Alaska summit
President Trump has posted the full text of a letter from First Lady Melania Trump that he delivered to Russia's Vladimir Putin as part of the pair's Friday summit in Alaska regarding the fate of the Ukraine war. In the letter, which Putin reportedly read 'immediately' in front of delegates at the summit, the First Lady urged the Russian leader to remember the innocence of the children caught in the middle of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 'In protecting the innocence of these children, you will do more than serve Russia alone — you serve humanity itself,' the letter reads. 'Such a bold idea transcends all human division, and you, Mr. Putin, are fit to implement this vision with the stroke of the pen today. It is is time.' The president revealed the letter on Truth Social, after making multiple posts criticizing media coverage of the Alaska summit, which did not result in any lasting deal to end the Ukraine war. "It's incredible how the Fake News violently distorts the TRUTH when it comes to me," Trump wrote in an earlier post. "There is NOTHING I can say or do that would lead them to write or report honestly about me." "If I got Russia to give up Moscow as part of the Deal, the Fake News, and their PARTNER, the Radical Left Democrats, would say I made a terrible mistake and a very bad deal,' he said in another.
