Does being the deputy head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Department of Property Relations make you more likely to be convicted of high-scale embezzlement and corruption?
First, in May 2015, Yevgenia Vasilyeva was sentenced to five years in prison for embezzling approximately 3 billion rubles ($60 million) during her two years at the post. Less than a year later, on January 14 her successor, Aleksandr Gorshkolepov, was convicted of receiving at least 2 million rubles ($65,000) in bribes and 1 million rubles worth of services during his three years in the ministry.
Gorshkolepov was sentenced to serve seven years and nine months in a high-security prison and pay a 310 million-ruble ($4 million according to current exchange rate) fine.
He had been arrested in March 2015 and pleaded partially guilty.
However, given the criminal case against his predecessor, Vasilyeva, there is still hope for Gorshkolepov.
Criminal proceedings against the then-33-year-old woman began in 2012, and she was soon placed under house arrest, where she remained for 2 1/2 years. She was found guilty and sentenced to serve 2 1/2 more years in prison.
Vasilyeva was released, however, after just 34 days in a labor colony when a local court, citing good behavior and her lawyers' pleas, ruled that she deserved immediate parole.
Her release was met with shock and dismay by State Duma deputies -- including some with close ties to the Kremlin.
