https://twitter.com/ralee85/status/1367614591698690056>Interfax reports that the Deputy Chief of the General Staff and the most senior communications officer in the Russian military, Colonel General Khalil Arslanov, has been arrested for fraud in relation to the purchase of special equipment.
>The case involves Colonel Pavel Kutakhov, who was arrested last week for stealing an estimated 30 M RUB from an 800 M RUB contract for comm systems.
30M rubles, pocket change
>Kommersant reports that Colonel General Khalil Arslanov, head of Russia's Signal Troops and Deputy Chief of the General Staff, was charged in the theft of 2.2 B RUB and was hospitalized after suffering a hypertensive crisis during his interrogation
2B rubles, now we are starting to talk real money
>After expanding their investigation, investigators discovered that Russian troops had received equipment that was made in China even though it was supposed to be from Russia (they changed the labels).
>The investigation isn't limited to 2.2 B RUB worth of theft, but also to fraud related to contracts for the Azart comm system built by NPO Angstrem JSC and Yaroslavl Radio Plant. Of 18 B RUB spent on the radios, 6.5 B RUB might have been stolen due to artificially high prices
6B rubles, ouch
>Arslanov says that they saved so much on the purchase of R-187-P1 Azart radios, 6.7 B RUB of the contract's 18.5 B RUB was allegedly embezzled, because the radios were purchased from China in almost finished form with some components added in Russia
so corruption and potentially backdoored by China
and this is how you end up with https://twitter.com/radio_research/status/150084725994823680... Chechen soldiers wearing 3 non military radios (susceptible to basic radio finding/tracking), one being Motorola DRM and two analogs.