The Russian military prosecutor’s office has uncovered signs of fraud in the allocation of budget funds for research and development work on the “Safe City” system, which is overseen by the National Center for Informatization (NCI) of Rostec. This revelation comes from sources cited by RBK.
The investigation was initiated in September 2022 following a complaint from the advisor to the Minister for Emergency Situations, Daniil Martynov. Until last year, the development of the “Safe City” project was supervised by Alexander Chupriyan, the former Deputy Minister of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. In March 2023, he was relieved of his duties.
In November, the Department of Oversight on Anti-Corruption Legislation of the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office sent the investigation materials on budget expenditures to the Military Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee in Moscow.
The investigation focuses on the work that began in 2020 upon the order of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Employees of the NCI and certain scientific institutions were tasked with creating new technical and legal standards for the “Safe City” project, including a regulatory draft of a federal law.
The military prosecutors have identified signs of large-scale fraud in the implementation of research and development work. The potential damage is estimated at 620 million rubles. According to a source, this amount almost covers the entirety of the budget allocation for scientific research and design work.
Prior to this, Maxim Ivanov, a member of the State Duma, stated that the Russian Federation’s prosecutor’s office had established a separate structure, the military prosecutor’s office of the combined group of Russian troops, which deals with issues concerning the military personnel of this group.
Earlier, the military prosecutor’s office in the Vladimir region requested a court to block the Reddit forum.
