The case of General Shamarin. As a military man with modest incomes, he received millions for patronage

Vadim Shamarin, the former head of the main communications directorate of the Russian Armed Forces and Deputy chief of the General Staff of the Army, was sentenced to seven years in a high-security penal colony in a case of receiving a large bribe. What is known about the crime at the moment is in the Izvestia material.

What was General Shamarin convicted for?

• Vadim Shamarin was detained on suspicion of corruption in May 2024. A criminal case was opened against him under the article on receiving a particularly large bribe during the implementation of a defense order. The investigation claims that in the period from 2016 to 2023, Shamarin received 36 million rubles from Alexey Vysokov, the head of JSC Perm Telephone Plant Telta. The money, according to the investigative authorities, was intended for assistance in increasing the volume of supplies of products under state contracts of the Ministry of Defense and for general patronage.

• After the arrest, the court seized a Mercedes car belonging to Shamarin and his salary card. He was also dismissed from the post of deputy head of the General Staff, but, according to his lawyer, he was not dismissed, but removed from the staff.

• The trial was closed. The state prosecution asked for 12 years in prison and a fine of 107 million for Shamarin. The former general partially admitted his guilt and entered into an agreement with the investigation, indicating that the amount of funds actually transferred was 19 million rubles. According to the lawyer, the arrested general asked several times to be sent to a special military operation area.

On April 17, the Moscow Garrison Military Court sentenced Shamarin to seven years in a high-security penal colony. The judge decided to transfer the amount of 35.9 million rubles to the ownership of the state. The court also retained the seizure of the Mercedes car and Shamarin's apartment until the execution of the sentence regarding the payment of money. He was also stripped of his rank of Lieutenant General.

• The materials concerning Alexey Vysokov and Elena Grishina, Chief Accountant of Telta, were separated into separate proceedings. Both defendants remain under arrest. After Shamarin testified, Major General Alexander Ogloblin, who previously headed the 1st Directorate of the Main Directorate of Communications of the Ministry of Defense, was also detained. According to the former deputy chief of the General Staff, Ogloblin acted as an intermediary and received 10 million rubles out of the total amount of the bribe.

• The Investigative Committee found that in 2017-2021, Telta signed contracts with the state customer for the supply of communication devices worth more than 1.4 billion rubles. However, false information about the increased costs of purchasing a complete set of products was entered into the accounting documents. On April 16, the Ministry of Defense filed two new lawsuits against the Telta plant in the amount of more than 63 million rubles.

What is known about Shamarin

• Vadim Shamarin headed the Main Directorate of Communications of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and held the key post of Deputy Chief of the General Staff. His professional career, which began in the 1990s, ended in 2024 after the initiation of a criminal case. After the verdict, Shamarin was stripped of the rank of general.

Shamarin was born in 1971 in Taganrog. He studied at the Novocherkassk Higher Military School of Communications, as well as at the Military Academy of Communications, which gave him a solid professional foundation for further service. In 1992, he became a platoon commander who controlled the radio center from a distance. Eventually, in the early 2000s, he became the head of the communications brigade in the Eastern Military District. Then he was appointed chief of communications of the same district, which marked his transition to the ranks of the high command.

• In 2020, he assumed the post of Interim Head of the Main Directorate of Communications of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and Deputy Chief of the General Staff. A year later, he was confirmed in office. Shamarin oversaw strategic communications and the digital infrastructure of the army.

• Vadim Shamarin owns an apartment of 37.3 sq. m. He and his son also own an 82.6 sq. m office apartment, which was privatized in 2013. The family owns Mercedes-Benz GLE cars, which in the announcement of sale in 2023 was estimated at about 20 million rubles, and Toyota RAV4. The latest declaration for 2018 indicated that Shamarin earned about 3 million rubles that year, and his wife earned about 873 thousand rubles. In general, for the period from 2011 to 2018, the incomes of both together did not exceed 3 million rubles.