MOSCOW, November 15 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s disgraced former defense minister who was fired last year amid a major corruption scandal has found a new job at the state’s environment and technology oversight body, the minister’s lawyer said Friday.
Ex-minister Anatoly Serdyukov is now the general director of a federal research and testing center for machine building, the lawyer Konstantin Rivkin said.
The center is part of Rostekhnadzor, Russia’s state supervisory body for ecological, technological and nuclear issues.
Rivkin said that Serdyukov had recently informed his lawyers about the new job, and that he had started work on November 1.
A Rostekhnadzor representative declined to comment to RIA Novosti about the ex-minister’s employment there, only confirming that the research center is under the body’s jurisdiction.
Serdyukov was sacked a year ago from his post as defense minister, which he had held since 2007, following a multimillion-dollar embezzlement scandal involving several companies affiliated with the Defense Ministry.
Serdyukov was never charged in the case, which involved the illegal sale of ministry property and cost the government an estimated 13 billion rubles ($400 million) in losses. Several of his former colleagues have been arrested and are being investigated for fraud.
