Russia is experiencing a wave of criminal cases over the disruption of defense contracts
25 December 11:17
Russian authorities have filed criminal charges against at least 34 people for failing to fulfill state defense contracts since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reports, citing documents published on the website of Moscow’s general jurisdiction courts, "Komersant Ukrainian".
Reuters identified at least 11 of the individuals charged as company executives and two as senior executives.
At least five have already been sentenced to up to six years in prison.
About 15 people remain in custody pending trial.
In 2023, Dmitry Medvedev, who holds the position of First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Military Industrial Commission, warned defense industry executives that failure to fulfill contractual obligations could lead to criminal punishment.
According to Russian media estimates, in the first eight months of 2025, 43 criminal cases related to state defense contracts were filed with the courts, the largest number since the start of the full-scale war.
For comparison, 34 cases were registered in 2024, 36 in 2023, and 32 in 2022. In the three years before the war, the annual number of cases never exceeded 23.
Of the 43 cases filed between January and August 2025, 28 were directly related to the failure to fulfill contracts, 13 to bribery, and two to large-scale fraud.
This year, the authorities more often applied articles related to abuse of power and breach of contract, while in 2024 almost half of the cases involved fraud.
The number of bribery cases also increased: 13 cases were registered in the first eight months of 2025, compared to seven in 2024, nine in 2023, and ten in 2022.
