A colonel from the General Staff was fined for taking a bribe with a washing machine

The garrison military court in Moscow fined the colonel of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Ivan Mertvyshev, 400,000 rubles and banned him from holding government positions for two years. This is reported by “Kommersant”.

Mertvyshev was found guilty of attempted fraud.

Initially, the case was considered under the article on extortion of bribes. Punishment under this article provides up to 12 years of imprisonment. But later it was reclassified to the article “On attempted fraud”, the newspaper clarifies. The public prosecutor requested that the colonel be sentenced to two years in prison.

However, the court considered the full admission of guilt, Mertvyshev’s participation in hostilities in Chechnya and the presence of orders as mitigating circumstances. In addition, according to “Kommersant” information, during the trial, the colonel wrote a report with a request to send him to the war in Ukraine.

According to the investigation, Colonel Mertvyshev, responsible for conscription, tried to receive a bribe with a washing machine from the military commissar of the Ramenka district.

Mertvyshev called the military committee and “made it clear that things with the recruitment of conscripts are going out of hand badly” and that his inspection might “not have the best effect on the further career of the commissar himself.” A washing machine worth at least 70,000 rubles would solve the problem, Mertvyshev said. Military Commissar Ramenok pretended to accept the bribe, but he himself reported the extortion to the FSB military counterintelligence department. The colonel was detained when he came to pick up the washing machine.

A criminal case against Mertvyshev was initiated in November last year.