VORONEZH, October 29 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian army general has been fined 150,000 rubles (about $5,000) for fraudulently claiming he had taken part in munitions disposal operations in order to be paid for it, a Russian military court said Tuesday.
Major General Valery Sosnitsky, former chief of staff and first deputy chief of the 1st Air Force and Air Defense Forces Command, was found guilty of filing fictitious reports between January and June 2011, a court in the central Russian city of Voronezh said.
The general was paid total of 224,000 rubles for the fictitious work.
He was convicted on charges of fraud and abuse of office, which carries a maximum penalty of six years in prison. It was not immediately clear why his sentence was so lenient.
Russia has abandoned disposal of ammunition by detonation following a series of spectacular accidents at disposal facilities. Oleg Bochkaryov, deputy head of the Military-Industrial Commission, said Wednesday that no efficient alternative to detonation had yet been found.
