Theft of RUB 6 million allotted for scrapping nuclear subs exposed:

VLADIVOSTOK, March 10 (Itar-Tass) - Embezzlement of 6 million roubles allocated for the disposal of Russian nuclear submarines has been exposed in the Primorsky Territory. Criminal proceedings have been instituted over this fact under the RF Criminal Code article “Large-scale embezzlement,” the press service of the main department of the Russian Interior Ministry in the Far Eastern Federal District told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

According to investigators, the suspect is a former director of the Zvezda plant in the Primorsky Territory. The shipyard in Bolshoi Kamen specialises in repairing and scrapping of used submarines and is one of the largest in Russia.

In 2007, the plant concluded a contract on scrapping recycle Russia’s nuclear submarines of the Viktor-3 class worth over 780 million roubles. The works were funded by the Japanese government under the Russian-Japanese intergovernmental agreement “On cooperation in the field of disarmament, non-proliferation and dismantlement of nuclear weapons in the Russian Federation.” The funds that were transmitted to the shipyard were received under these international agreements.

The former head of the enterprise decided to use part of these funds for his personal purposes. He concluded a contract with one of the Primorsky Territory’s limited liability companies on special services that were not provided, but the shipyard paid for them 6 million US dollars. These funds were then cashed. In 2008, the director of the shipyard was fired – as his labour contract expired.

Bolshoi Kamen is a town located in the south of the Primorsky Territory and is the administrative centre of the Shkotovsky district. The town is connected with Vladivostok by road and by railway. It is located on the opposite side of the Ussuri Bay as seen from Shamora (Bukhta Lazurnaya). “Bolshoi Kamen” is translated as “Big Stone,” and is nicknamed “Bigston” in Russian by some locals. Bolshoi Kamen should not be confused with Kamen-Rybolov, another settlement in the Primorsky Territory. Bolshoi Kamen is a mono-city mostly specialised in engineering. Shipbuilding and repair works together with food industry and construction constitutes the basis of its economy. The status of city was awarded to Bolshoi Kamen in 1989. Bolshoi Kamen is a closed city due to its naval base.

Bolshoi Kamen began as a naval support base in 1947, receiving urban-type settlement status in 1956, followed by town status on 31 August 1989. During the Soviet era, the town’s nature as a naval base saw it designated a closed city. This was relaxed in 1989, with plans for a civilian harbour in the town, however these plans were later cancelled and the town re-categorised as a closed city in 1996. A large proportion of the town’s population left during the 1990s, as the ship repair facilities operated almost at a standstill after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Most of the town’s population is employed by involved in the repair and construction of atomic submarines. There are three banks and seven joint-venture companies, specialising in ships, shipping, and sea-fishing. Bolshoi Kamen is connected by a goods rail line to the Trans-Siberian Railway. Although the town is only around 40 km in a straight line to Vladivostok, the road connection is around 130 km around the coast.

The Far East shipyard Zvezda is a leading facility for overhauls of nuclear submarines pertaining to the Navy’s pacific Fleet and the only facility in the Far East which is a specialist in repairs, upgrades and disposal of nuclear submarines. The facility has repaired nuclear submarines since 1962. Already at that time specialised process sections and divisions were set up at Zvezda. In the hard 1990’s when the governmental defence order was not placed with the shipyard, the facility was managed to keep up only through continuous search of orders from third parties.

Besides, the agreement signed by the Defence Industry Committee of Russia and the US Department of Defence concerning the cooperation in reduction of strategic offensive arms in 1993 played an important part. The Zvezda shipyard was awarded a contract for disposal of strategic nuclear submarines retired from the Russian Navy. Under the signed contracts the USA supplied equipment to the shipyard and financed repairs of existing and building of new facilities. By date, a state-of-the-art universal nuclear submarine disposal complex has been set up at Zvezda. More than 40 nuclear submarines have been disposed of there since the complex commissioning.

Source: TASS Online10 March 2011

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