Businessman Igor Kotelnikov, who died in Moscow's SIZO-4 «Medved», was the fourth defendant in the case of former Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov. This was reported by TASS and RIA Novosti, citing case materials.
According to the agencies, Kotelnikov was detained and sent to custody in June. On July 12, it became known that he died in the detention center's punishment cell due to heart problems.
The businessman was accused of embezzlement (Part 4 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code) due to improper organization of food for the Ministry of Defense. Security officials claim that he was associated with the companies Konservpaklam, GPK-Prodtara, and Bruno, which are involved in Bulgakov's criminal case.
The former deputy defense minister was arrested last Friday, July 26. On the same day, three more defendants in his case became known — Alexander Mikhalenko, Elvira Smirnova, and Valery Kovalevich. As a source for RIA Novosti reported, they were arrested in April in a similar case of embezzlement.
The investigation claims that Bulgakov, who was responsible for the logistics of the Russian army from 2008 to 2022, lobbied for the interests of several companies when concluding government contracts. The prices for their products were «deliberately inflated, exceeded the costs of their preparation and did not correspond to the quality.» According to a RIA Novosti source, some contracts were concluded after the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
The investigative publication Metla wrote in the fall of 2022 that Bulgakov's daughter Marina Meshkova had been a co-founder of the company Sodruzhestvo Veteranov since 2009. In 2018, this company was liquidated, and before that it earned money on government purchases and was involved in, among other things, the supply of juices, pasta, tea, cookies and dried fruits for the army. At the same time, journalists found the general's secret dacha in the village of Buzlanovo near Novorizhskoye Highway, worth about 100 million rubles.
According to Metla, the general's daughter's business partners also made money on contracts with the army. For example, Agrokoopprodukt received contracts for the supply of coffee and flour, and GTP Vozrozhdenie supplied the Ministry of Defense with compotes, cucumbers, and chocolate.