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Wave of high profile corruption scandals

Russia has seen several high profile corruptions scandals develop in just a few days. The Defense Minister was fired after a huge real estate scandal, and hundreds of millions of dollars went missing in Russia’s ambitious GLONASS project and in the APEC meeting in Vladivostok.

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As BarentsObserver reported, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was dismissed last week after his ministry was caught up in a corruption scandal that has cost the Russian state nearly 3 billion rubles (app €409,6 million). One of the objects under investigation is an oil reloading plant in Murmansk that was sold for 452 million rubles, some 240 million rubles less than the plant was worth.

Leading aerospace firm Russian Space Systems (RSS) which is working on what is considered to be the Russian version of GPS, dubbed GLONASS, has been linked to a wide-ranging embezzlement scandal. On Friday, Russian security services confirmed that around 500 million rubles (about €68,4 million) had been lost to fraud. The funds were written off through fake contracts and transferred to the accounts of shell companies.

The 24 satellite global navigation system is intended for determining location, speed and exact time by military and civilian users. The system will provide continuous year-round global navigation support globally regardless of weather conditions.

The allegedly embezzled funds account for about 5.6 percent of total GLONASS funding, Russia Today writes.

Another scandal in Russia erupted when recently revealed that at least €2,3 million was embezzled during the construction of facilities for the APEC summit that took place in early September in Russia’s Vladivostok region.

The APEC summit has been rife with scandals over faulty construction projects.

On Thursday, investigators conducted searches and seized documents from the offices of Minregion, the organization administering the construction of facilities. So far, the investigators estimate at least €2,3 million in embezzlement, but say that the sum could be as high as €4,3 million.

The investigation also revealed that the ex-Deputy Minister of Regional Development, Roman Panov,was involved in the case. During a search of his apartment, investigators found banking statements for accounts worth 73 million rubles and $115,000.