Special Features of Economic Crimes in the Armed Forces

Igor Mikhailovich Matskevich

Economic crimes in the armed forces are crimes committed by servicemen which infringe in some manner on social relations in the fields of production and distribution of values or inflict direct material damage on the State. One special feature of economic crimes in the armed forces is the fact that the section of the 1996 Criminal Code of the Russian Federation that deals with “Crimes Against Military Service” only addresses acts involving the destruction of or damage to military property (Article 146). Servicemen’s liability for such crimes is mainly spelled out in other sections (“General Criminal Liability”), for example, theft (Article 158), fraud (Article 159), embezzlement (Article 160), — and in Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code (“Crimes in the Field of Economic Activities”).

Economic crime trends in the armed forces have been extremely unfavorable. Economic crimes account for just over 20% of all crimes committed by servicemen. However, fraud increased by a factor of 3.2, embezzlement, by 40.2%, bribery, by 32.5%, — a type of crime traditionally characterized by high latency rates.

Besides, according to the Armed Forces Procurator’s Office, theft and misappropriation of armed forces’ property have now been replaced by large-scale embezzlement considerably facilitated by the release of material resources resulting from the armed forces reduction and the re-distribution of equipment and property due to the division of the Soviet Armed Forces. The recent scandal involving illegal weapons supplies to Armenia illustrates the scale of embezzlement in the armed forces.

Further studies of economic crimes in the armed forces should first of all analyze the problem of identifying perpetrators, since misappropriations involve Ministry of Defense officials.

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