ALGERIAN MIGS WERE ADDITIONALLY EQUIPPED WITH A SENTENCE
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
June 10, 2013 Monday
by Yury Senatorov
Source: Kommersant, June 07, 2013, p. 4
THE LAST PERSON ACCUSED IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE CASE ABOUT
COUNTERFEITED SPARE PARTS FOR MIG AIRPLANES RECEIVED A SENTENCE WITH
PROBATION PERIOD; The Moscow city court issued the last sentences in a
whole series of criminal cases related to equipment of MiG-29 fighters
that Russia tried to sell to Algeria in 2006 with counterfeited or
obsolete components.
The Moscow city court issued the last sentences in a whole series of
criminal cases related to equipment of MiG-29 fighters that Russia
tried to sell to Algeria in 2006 with counterfeited or obsolete
components.
The Moscow city court heard the criminal case against Mikael Kazaryan,
58, who flew to Moscow from Armenia, behind the closed doors in two
meetings. having recognized Kazaryan as a person guilty of committing
of a crime outlined by part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code
(fraud on a very big scale), the court sentenced him to an imprisonment
term of four years with probation period, which was below the lowest
level. The sentenced and his lawyer are not going to contest the
sentence.
The criminal case against General Director of Rezon company (it was
located in Nizhny Novgorod) Mikael Kazaryan became continuation of a
loud scandal associated with supply of MiG fighters and spare parts
for them to Algeria by Russian airplane-building corporation (RAC) MiG.
According to the international contract worth $1.3 billion signed in
2006, the Russian party had to supply 28 combat airplanes MiG-29SMT
and six combat training airplanes MiG-29UB and components for them
to the Defense Ministry of Algeria. According to the agreement of the
parties, the airplanes like the spare parts for them had to be new. In
reality it turned out that the components were produced between 1982
and 1996 and were already used. Technical passports for these products
were also counterfeited to give appearance of new ones to them. All
this was revealed in 2007 when having received the first 15 MiGs the
Algerian party announced that it found defect components in them. In
October of 2007, Algeria spoke about return of the airplanes to Moscow
and return of the money paid for them. Algeria said that otherwise
it would give up its obligations in the framework of other deals. In
2008, the parties agreed on such return and the airplanes returned
to Russia and were included into the Russian Air Force.
According to the accusation, Kazaryan was one of suppliers of RAC
MiG and in accordance with the agreement of the parties in 2007 he
supplied the system of limitations of flight angles (SOS-3M-3) to
the customer. In reality the system was assembled from secondhand
spare parts of the end of the 1980s. every such module cost RAC
MiG 2 million rubles but due to the scandal and arrest imposed by
the Federal Security Service on all components being at warehouses
Nizhny Novgorod-based Rezon managed to supply only one such kit and
to receive money for it. In the course of investigation it was found
out that the manufacturer plant did not do the system of flight angles
limitations supplied to RAC MiG unlike it was written in the passport
and did not issue a technical passport for the product.
Aware of investigation into a criminal case against him, Kazaryan
hid in Armenia but afterwards he flew to Moscow voluntarily, signed
a pre-trial agreement on cooperation and provided detailed evidences
in the framework of the criminal case. He also requested hearing of
his case in accordance with a special procedure counting on sentence
with probation period. During the trial and investigation the accused
confessed his guilt fully and repented and the court took this into
account during issuing of the sentence.
The case heard by the Moscow city court was the last in the whole
series of cases instituted because of supply of low-quality or
secondhand components for the Algerian MiGs. Earlier, in July of 2009,
the Savelovsky district court of Moscow sentenced General Director of
ATK Aviaremsnab Musail Ismailov and his deputies Alexander Kutumov and
Valery Dorykin to 5.5 years of imprisonment for supply of counterfeited
spare parts for Polish air force through RAC MiG and in 2011 the court
added two years of imprisonment to Ismailov for a similar crime in
the framework of the “Algerian case.” Investigating into this case,
operatives of the Federal Security Service paid attention to managers
of other suppliers: ATK Dvizhenie, Volga-Aviaservis and SNK-Plus. In
2012, the Moscow city court finally sentenced Sergei Sobolev to
five years of imprisonment and his accomplices Mikhail Zhevagin
and Sergei Kruglenkov to penalties worth 500,000 and 200,000 rubles
respectively. The criminal persecution of former Senior Deputy General
Director of RAC MiG Sergei Tsivilev accused in accordance with article
201 of the Criminal Code (misuse of powers) for signing of contracts
with suppliers of falsified components was dropped in December of
2012 because of expiry of statute of limitation.