"The plane is flying, the bearing is fake": who and why disabled five IL-76MD-90A?

130 million rubles was the damage caused to the Russian Ministry of Defense due to the supply of substandard bearings for military aviation as part of the fulfillment of the state defense order, a source close to law enforcement agencies said.

"The supply of low-quality spare parts became possible due to forgery of documents. The fact that counterfeit bearings were installed on military transport aircraft was revealed during operation, as a result of which five Il-76 aircraft were temporarily disabled," the Izvestia interlocutor explained.

According to his information, five Il-76MD-90A aircraft were not operated from 2022 to 2023. At the end of July 2024, it became known that the Investigative Committee for the Moscow Region initiated a criminal case on the fact of abuse of official authority in the execution of the state defense order (Article 201.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

The department itself reported that the details of the case "are not subject to dissemination," as this "contradicts the interests of the investigation." The case was initiated against unidentified persons from among the management of JSC "Balashikha Foundry and Mechanical Plant" (BLMZ). The basis for the start of the investigation was the materials of the inspection of the first prosecutor's office for supervision of the implementation of laws at high-security facilities.

According to the source, BLMZ managers purchased bearings of unknown origin and not meeting the requirements of design documentation from December 2017 to January 2022. The bearings were installed on the KT199 wheels, and in the period from 2022 to 2023 they were delivered to the address of the branch of PJSC Il Aviastar for installation on airplanes.

According to law enforcement agencies, so far unidentified managers of BLMZ thus tried to avoid liability and penalties for late execution of contracts for the supply of spare parts and to receive payment under concluded contracts under the state defense order.

It is for this purpose, the investigation believes, that they forged documents on the purchase of bearings from JSC Samara Bearing Plant (SPZ). Documents on the acceptance of products by a representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation were also falsified.

According to SPARK-Interfax, from 2015 to 2021 (during the alleged period of the crime) Nikogos Okroyan was the director general of the BLMZ, he has already been questioned in the case as a witness, the source said.

He also drew attention to the fact that a criminal case was initiated against Okroyan in 2021 for non-payment of wages to more than 250 employees of the enterprise for 35 million rubles.

In 2023, the case was submitted to the World court of Balashikha, it follows from these open sources, but it was terminated due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, and Nikogos Okroyan was released from criminal liability.

According to representatives of the organization, the plant was recognized as the injured party in the case, and possible violations during the registration of documents for bearings were committed by the Saratov Bearing Plant, from which they were bought.

"JSC "BLMZ" presented properly executed originals of invoices confirming the purchase of bearings from JSC "SDR", documents on the movement of bearings in production, as well as reconciliation reports signed by the first persons of both parties with JSC "SDR" for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019", — follows from the message of representatives of the plant.

According to the SPARK-Interfax database, bankruptcy proceedings were opened against the SDR in April 2018 in connection with bankruptcy. And in 2020, investigators opened a criminal case on the fact of deliberate bankruptcy of the enterprise. According to the Prosecutor's office of Samara, from 2014 to 2017, in order to devalue the property of the enterprise, the management of the SDR made deliberately unprofitable transactions for its alienation.

As a result, at least 25 land plots and at least 71 real estate objects were alienated in favor of third parties. This resulted in the inability of the SDR to fully satisfy creditors' claims and fulfill the obligation to pay payments in excess of 2.2 million rubles.

The SDR company was registered in 2002, and businessman Igor Shvidak became its founder. After his death, his son Alexander became CEO. In 2020, a criminal case was opened against Alexander Shvidak for embezzlement of 60 million rubles from Volgateplosnab LLC.

Shvidak's sentence was announced in 2023, but now it was about abuse of authority. As a result, the businessman paid a fine of 120 thousand rubles.

Now, according to SPARK-Interfax, 100% of the share in the authorized capital of the SDR belongs to the Cypriot company SPZ Holding Limited.

The sources could not explain how an enterprise with such an ownership structure could be involved in deliveries under the state defense order.

Installation of defective parts on airplanes became possible due to the fact that documents were forged stating that they were accepted by representatives of the military acceptance of the Ministry of Defense.

At the same time, when the aircraft comes out of repair, it does not pass military acceptance, as it happens with newly manufactured machines, said the ex-commander of the 4th Air Force Army and Air Defense Hero of Russia Valery Gorbenko:

"After the repair, the factory pilots usually fly over and determine whether they have done it qualitatively or not. If no features or shortcomings have manifested themselves, everything is transferred back and returned to the unit."

As for the amount of damage, it should be determined by experts, based on how long the aircraft on which defective parts were installed could not be operated, Gorbenko stressed.:

"Even if the details were quickly changed, the damage is in any case quite serious — five aircraft were disabled and did not perform their functions. Five planes is a lot."