Billions in embezzlement, bribes, and a plea bargain: how General Vyacheslav Lobuzko bought himself a suspended sentence for the theft of 130 million rubles by giving up Shoigu’s team
It has become known that a verdict has been handed down against the former commander of a division of the 3rd Separate Air Defense Army (early warning system for missile attack), and former deputy general director of PJSC “RTI,” Major General Vyacheslav Lobuzko.
He became part of a campaign to punish individuals associated with the Russian air defense system. However, he received eight years… suspended. This is because he is currently actively giving testimony regarding embezzlement involving former Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov, who is closely associated with Sergei Shoigu. In particular, Lobuzko was responsible for the creation of the National Defense Management Center—the main and favorite project of Shoigu.
Lobuzko was accused of embezzling 130 million rubles while executing a state defense contract.
This is already the second verdict against the general. Previously, he received five years suspended for bribing a Ministry of Defense acceptance officer.
Even during the investigation, Lobuzko began actively providing testimony against Ruslan Tsalikov and other individuals linked to Shoigu in exchange for freedom and a suspended sentence. As deputy head of the RTI holding (then a subsidiary of AFK Sistema), Vyacheslav Lobuzko signed all financial documents for the implementation of the “Center 2014” project—the creation of the state defense command center. This was Shoigu’s favorite project. Tsalikov was his deputy, and Lobuzko handled all operational issues with him, as well as matters related to the “embezzlement” of enormous budget funds.
Lobuzko is considered one of the “fathers” of the Voronezh radar system (SPRNs), designed to detect ballistic and cruise missiles. He is a former commander of a division of the 3rd Separate Air Defense Army. Lobuzko is also a close friend of the commander of the Space Forces and deputy commander-in-chief of the Aerospace Defense Forces, Alexander Golovko.
The general is one of a long list of individuals involved in the current air defense system who have been imprisoned. They are mostly prosecuted for unrelated offenses, in order to avoid showing direct dissatisfaction with the system itself.
For embezzlement of pension funds, Evgeny Novitsky is under house arrest. However, sources say he was “punished” for other reasons. As chairman of RTI, he oversaw the creation of hardware and computing systems for ground-based elements of the Voronezh SPRN stations within AFK Sistema and acted as an intermediary in financial interactions with the top leadership of the Ministry of Defense.
Alexander Talalaev is a close friend and business partner of Major General Vyacheslav Lobuzko.
Talalaev headed and was among the founders of the company “RiTiS VKO” (a subsidiary of RTI Systems), where Lobuzko once served as first deputy.
A military representative, head of the 502nd Military Representation of the Ministry of Defense, Denis Linkevicius, was also convicted. He is the son of Alexander Linkevicius, who for a long time was a senior employee of the RTI group of companies and, together with Lobuzko, was well aware of the shadowy aspects of the creation of the air defense system within the Ministry of Defense during the era of Shoigu and Tsalikov. The younger Linkevicius was released after his father began cooperating with the investigation.
