Russian General Yuri Kuznetsov sentenced to 12 years in bribery case. He won’t get his sword back until he pays a multimillion-ruble fine.
A Russian military court has sentenced Lieutenant General Yuri Kuznetsov, the former head of the Defense Ministry’s personnel department, to 12 years in prison on large-scale bribery charges. The 235th Garrison Military Court heard the case.
The state confiscated a house and plot of land in Krasnodar Krai that investigators identified as the bribe Kuznetsov received. The rest of his seized property will remain under injunction until he pays a fine of 25.3 million rubles.
Investigators also seized more than 120 million rubles, nearly $500,000, 374,000 euros, a car, 14 pairs of watches, jewelry, silver epaulettes, and a sword.
The court also stripped Kuznetsov of his rank of lieutenant general in reserve and his state awards.
Prosecutors had sought a 14.5-year sentence for Kuznetsov and a fine of more than 480 million rubles. The trial was held behind closed doors.
The court also convicted Lev Martirosyan, a Krasnodar businessman and the case’s second defendant, of giving the bribe, sentencing him to 10 years and eight months in prison and a fine of 62.6 million rubles. Both men pleaded not guilty, and their defense plans to appeal the verdict.
The charges against Kuznetsov date to his tenure as head of the General Staff’s 8th Directorate, which is responsible, among other things, for protecting state secrets within the Defense Ministry.
According to investigators, Martirosyan gave Kuznetsov’s family a house and plot of land in Krasnodar worth more than 80 million rubles. In exchange, he received help securing government contracts to house cadets from the Krasnodar Higher Military School at his hotel. Investigators valued the contracts at a total of 372 million rubles.
Kuznetsov was detained in May 2024, shortly after the arrest of Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov and the dismissal of Sergei Shoigu as defense minister. Novaya Gazeta Europe reported, citing a source in the Defense Ministry, that Kuznetsov was part of Timur Ivanov’s team and may have received money for decisions related to granting access to state secrets.
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