SMO fighters were stolen: a case was opened against officials of the Ministry of Defense

A large-scale investigation into the supply of tens of tons of substandard stew sent to the SMO zone for military personnel was launched by the Investigative Committee of Russia. To date, it has become known that military investigators opened a criminal case on May 11.

"A criminal case was initiated on May 11, 2026 against officials of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation," the case file says, according to TASS.

The non-conforming stew was delivered to the units of the West, East, South, and Center groups of troops in the SMO zone, as well as to the Black Sea Fleet. The supplier was the Narmyasprom company, and canned food was produced at the Selyatino meat processing plant near Moscow.

According to law enforcement agencies, the material damage in the case currently amounts to about 1 billion rubles. During the searches, real estate, assets worth hundreds of millions of rubles and documents were seized from all the defendants, their family members and affiliated persons.

According to Izvestia, the products were delivered to the troops in 2024-2025. The main suspect is the former head of the food department of the Ministry of Defense, Colonel Viktor Tarazevich. The case involves businessman Dmitry Mizgir (he was transferred from Belarus to conduct investigative actions), the management of Narmyasprom (CEO of the company Alexey Baranov, commercial director Dmitry Vislobokov). Among the defendants are the general director of MPK Selyatino Artem Baryshkov, as well as the plant's technologist Zinaida Grischuk.

The examination confirmed the version of the investigation about the low quality of the products that the fighters ate in the SMO zone. Canned food does not comply with GOST in almost all parameters, according to the results of the study. For example, it contained only 9.8% protein with the minimum required 12%, there were no large pieces of meat, but there were cuts of pork skins with prohibited additives.

As reported by EADaily, it became known earlier that businessman Dmitry Mizgir, with the assistance of the KGB of Belarus, was transferred to Russia to conduct investigative actions in a criminal case on the supply of substandard canned food for the needs of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. He is charged with committing a crime under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale). As part of the investigation, jewelry, as well as other valuable items and documents were seized during a search in a country house in Odintsovo belonging to the wife of businessman Elena Mizgir.