MOSCOW, May 4. A military court in Moscow sentenced Andrei Koltukov, former head of the 3rd Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, to four years in prison for abuse of power in the amount of 6.8 million rubles , reported the 235th Garrison Military Court on Thursday.
According to the prosecution, he employed five researchers at the research institute, who actually did not work there, so that they would sit on the dissertation council «to raise its scientific potential.» As a result, they received a salary of more than 6.8 million rubles for all over seven years.
Koltukov did not plead guilty and argued that the employees performed the work remotely, and the presence of a dissertation council at the research institute «did not give him any or privileges, in particular, did not in any way increase its authority and did not enhance the prestige of the research institute.
Nevertheless, the court considered his guilt proven and sentenced him under article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (abuse of authority) to four years in a penal colony.
Koltukov was previously awarded the medal of the Order «For Services to the Fatherland» II degree, received the titles «Veteran of Military Service», «Veteran of Combat Operations» and «Laureate of the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology.» According to the verdict of the court, they did not deprive him of the awards.
The Third Central Research Institute is one of the leading scientific institutions under the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, under which a number of scientific schools have been formed. The scope of their research includes the development of military vehicles, armored and engineering equipment, rocket and artillery weapons, automation systems for command and control of troops and intelligence. In addition, the specialists of the institute are developing and implementing new methods of combat use of missile forces and artillery.