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- Beef march: 700 million rubles were stolen during the supply of canned food to the SVO zone
Beef march: 700 million rubles were stolen during the supply of canned food to the SVO zone
The Investigative Committee of Russia has launched a large-scale investigation into the supply of dozens of tons of low-quality stew for the Ministry of Defense, Izvestia has learned. The damage in the case exceeds 700 million rubles. The products were delivered to the troops in 2024-2025. The main suspect is Viktor Tarazevich, the former head of the food department of the Ministry of Defense. Five more people are involved in the case. At the same time, only three of the six defendants were detained and then arrested by a military court for two months: they were charged with fraud on an especially large scale. The whereabouts of the others are unknown to the investigation.
How the scheme with low-quality stew was revealed
The investigation into the circumstances of the supply of substandard canned food began at the end of April this year, Izvestia found out. A large shipment of suspicious beef and pork stew produced by the Selyatino MPC near Moscow was found in the warehouses of one of the brigades of the 25th Combined Arms Army located in the SVO zone in the Luhansk People's Republic. Canned food was sent for examination, which revealed their non-compliance with GOST and technical regulations. For example, the remains of skins, an increased starch content, the food additive carrageenan and a number of other violations were found in the meat.
Military investigators of the TFR for the United Group of Troops established that the canned food was supplied to the troops by the Narmyasprom company, and on April 20 they concluded that there were signs of embezzlement of funds from the Ministry of Defense by the supplier and the manufacturing company in the amount of 126.2 million rubles.
After that, the prosecutor's office of Naro-Fominsk near Moscow, where the production workshops of MPK Selyatino are located, checked the products of the plant, fully confirming the conclusion of military investigators about numerous violations in the production of canned food. As follows from the report, in order to reduce the cost of products and in violation of state standards, not only parts of skins, starch and carrageenan were added to the stew, but also offal, nitrite, meat trimming and various food additives. All this led to the fact that there was not enough meat raw materials in the stew, which was replaced with ballast substances. As a result, the mass fraction of protein was reduced, and the products themselves had "unusual shades" in smell and taste.
In this regard, according to the prosecutor's office, the plant's products should be considered adulterated and unsuitable for proper nutrition of military personnel, "especially in conditions of combat missions," and their cost should be overestimated. The supervisory authority, blaming Artem Baryshkov, general Director of IPC Selyatino, for the release of low-quality goods, sent the results of the inspection to the Main Investigative Department of the TFR.
These materials became the basis for the initiation of a criminal case on May 11.
Who became the person involved in the investigation
Already on May 21, the GVSU clarified the charge, and six defendants appeared in it — Viktor Tarazevich, who until May 2026 held the position of head of the food department of the Department of Resource Support of the Ministry of Defense, Alexey Baranov, CEO of Narmyasprom LLC, Dmitry Vislobokov, commercial director of this enterprise, Artem Baryshkov, CEO of Selyatino, and Zinaida Grischuk, a technologist, as well as businessman Dmitry Mizgir.
According to the TFR, all of them were engaged in embezzlement of funds from the Ministry of Defense on an especially large scale when purchasing food products for the needs of military personnel participating in their military operations.
The actions of the defendants were qualified by the investigation under the article on fraud committed by an organized group on a particularly large scale, and the damage in the case is estimated at 700 million rubles. However, judging by the case file, so far only Viktor Tarazevich, Dmitry Vislobokov and Alexei Baranov have been charged. All three were arrested by the 235th military court. The suspects do not admit their guilt.
Lawyer Robert Zinoviev, who represents Dmitry Vislobokov, is confident that there is no corpus delicti in his client's actions.
"He was only performing his official duties and has nothing to do with embezzlement of budget funds," the lawyer noted. Moreover, the investigation has not found any traces of illegal enrichment in him, which is absurd with such an accusation.
The whereabouts of three other defendants are unknown to the investigation, and they have not yet been charged, even in absentia.
It is worth noting that the case is handled by the first department of the Internal Control Department of the Investigative Committee, which investigates crimes against state power and in the economic sphere, which indicates its priority nature.,
How were the supplies for the army organized
As follows from the case file, in 2024, the only supplier of food products for the needs of the Ministry of Defense was the state—owned JSC Voentorg. In the same year, it involved the RVE company in the execution of state contracts, which concluded a supply agreement with Narmyasprom on February 9, 2024, and was signed by CEO Artem Baranov from the subcontractor.
The company undertook to supply canned meat to the military units that performed tasks in the CBO and CTO zone: stewed beef and pork, chicken meat in its own juice, as well as lunch dishes and porridges. The actual producer of all products was the Selyanino MPC affiliated with Narmyasprom near Moscow.
The company then continued deliveries under a new contract signed on January 31, 2025. In just two years, she supplied 170 tons of canned food to the troops for a total of 7 billion rubles.
At the same time, by the time the first contract was signed, according to military investigators, all the defendants in the case had entered into a criminal conspiracy to steal funds from the defense department by making canned food from cheap raw materials and of inadequate quality.
Artyom Baryshkov, according to the TFR, led the group and coordinated the actions of its other participants. The investigation believes that Selyatino's CEO and technologist Grischuk replaced some of the raw materials with cheaper components and controlled the production of canned food supplied under Defense Ministry contracts. And Alexey Baranov, General director of Narmyasprom, and Dmitry Vislobokov, technical director, provided the company with orders from the Ministry of Defense, and were also responsible for preparing documents with inaccurate information about the composition and quality of canned food.
Dmitry Mizgir, according to investigators, organized the interaction between the group's organizer, Artyom Baryshkov, and the head of the Ministry of Defense, Viktor Tarazevich, and also, with the help of his acquaintances in law enforcement agencies, was supposed to find out about the beginning of inspections or investigations against members of the group and help them hide traces of crimes.
Tarazevich, according to investigators, provided Narmasprom with orders from the department.
As a result, by 2025, Narmyasprom supplied canned food not only for the military personnel of the land groups of troops "South", "West", "North" and "East", but also for the sailors of the Black Sea Fleet.
Connection with other corruption cases of the Ministry of Defense
The new large—scale investigation of the TFR is not the first criminal case involving the supply of products for the needs of the army. So, in April 2025, the former head of the food department of the Ministry of Defense, Alexander Berezhnoy, was sentenced to 7 years and 7 months in a penal colony: the 235th military court found him guilty of accepting bribes from suppliers for concluding contracts.
The deputy head of the department, Alexander Vakulin, and employees Alexey Grinyuk and Yuri Reshetnikov were also punished in this case.
The criminal case of former Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov is also linked to the supply of substandard food.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
