2024-02-02T19:54:00+02:00 Politics 2024-09-15T04:43:33+03:00

Ukrainian news

UK intelligence analyzes situation with corruption in russian army and cites data on ‘services’ for bribes

UK intelligence analyzes situation with corruption in russian army and cites data on ‘services’ for bribes

British intelligence has reported that corruption has long been a problem of the russian army and significantly undermines its effectiveness.

This is stated in the intelligence update of the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom, published on X.

So, the review refers to an article on corruption in the russian army of the independent russian newspaper Verstka dated January 30, 2024, which analyzed more than a thousand cases of military bribery. The agency notes that this study revealed corruption schemes and a system of bribes used by russian servicemen and their commanders.

It is reported that bribes were given or demanded for various ‘services’: leave, certification of physical training, military rank, driver licenses, and avoiding disciplinary action against soldiers using smartphones or who get drunk.

At the same time, after February 2022, the package of ‘services was expanded: certificates of injury, awards for participation in the so-called ‘Special Military Operation’, that is, the war in Ukraine, and the avoidance of sending on a combat mission.

Analysts note that this activity can be very profitable for corrupt officers in russia. In particular, Verstka published prices for these ‘services’, which range from RUB 40,000 for avoiding being sent to the front line to RUB 1 million for a certificate of injury.

"Corruption has long been a problem in the Russian Armed Forces. The journalist Dmitry Kholodov investigated military corruption in the 1990s and was killed in Moscow by a bomb in a briefcase in October 1994. It is likely that corruption significantly undermines the effectiveness of the Russian military. There is only a remote chance that significant progress will be made in reducing corruption levels," the agency concludes.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, British intelligence said that the aggressor state of the russian federation was able to tighten control over the Wagner PMC, successfully subordinating the group to the russian National Guard (Rosgvardia).