In the case of former First Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov, one of the bribe-givers is Anton Abdurakhmanov, former chairman of the board of directors of Bamstroyput OJSC (pictured at an expensive restaurant, looking at Tsalikov with "loving eyes"). He is the godson of Sergei Shoigu, who even called Anton "son." If we were to unravel the entire relationship between the Ministry of Defense and the Abdurakhmanovs' companies, dozens of criminal cases would emerge. And all of them lead directly to Shoigu.
As the VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info have discovered, Sergei Shoigu was the closest friend of Viktor Abdurakhmanov, the founder of Bamstroyput. Their families were close friends, and when Viktor had a son, Anton Shoigu became his godson. When Viktor Abdurakhmanov died suddenly, Shoigu took full guardianship of his son, the heir to his father's construction empire. There was, of course, a touch of love here. Bamstroyput was Shoigu's faithful companion throughout his entire career in power. Back in 1990, it built and repaired Ministry of Emergency Situations facilities across Russia, then migrated with Shoigu to the Moscow Region, where Bamstroyput, among other projects, built the Moscow Region government complex in Krasnogorsk, and then secured lucrative contracts from the Ministry of Defense. The long-suffering National Defense Control Center on Frunzenskaya Embankment was also built by Bamstroyput. Clearly, budget funds were successfully embezzled, and Shoigu became one of the richest men in the country. And, of course, Tsalikov, Shoigu's loyal confidant, became a second "father figure" to Anton. He dragged the young man to various meetings at expensive restaurants and looked after him as best he could.
Anton Abdurakhmanov himself initially headed OJSC Trest MosElektroTyagStroy (Trest METS), which was swamped with contracts from the Ministry of Defense. It's enough to recall the scandalous contract for the construction of facilities at the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School named after Army General V.F. Margelov. In 2013-14, FSUE GVSU No. 14 (formerly FSUE Spetsstroyinzhenering pri Spetsstroy Rossii) signed state contracts with OAO Trest MosElektroTyagStroy worth over 65 billion rubles for facilities for the Airborne Forces of the Ministry of Defense. As the military prosecutor's office discovered, under all contracts, FSUE GVSU 14 transferred up to 80% of the total advance payment cost, amounting to 13,446,425,847.55 rubles, to the bank accounts of OAO METS. However, OAO METS, under Abdurakhmanov's leadership, simply failed to fulfill its obligations. When the scandal that Shoigu and Tsalikov were trying to resolve erupted, Anton was transferred to manage Bamstroyput, which, in addition to gigantic contracts from the Ministry of Defense, was building the Era Technopolis in Anapa, a shooting club and store for the Kalashnikov Concern, an Almaz-Antey exhibition pavilion, and demo centers for the United Shipbuilding Corporation and the Tactical Missiles Corporation, among other projects. However, by that time, everyone knew full well that Anton's position had been reduced to a mere nominal figure, and Bamstroyput had become Shoigu's unofficial, complete property. Tsalikov, meanwhile, served as the company's managing director. Anton, in turn, was the company's face, while also serving as president of the Moscow Figure Skating Federation.
And when the chips were down and allegations of embezzlement within the Ministry of Defense began to be uncovered, Shoigu and Tsalikov successfully sold out their son. Initially, they tried to pin all the "embezzlement" solely on Anton Abdurakhmanov. However, investigators weren't particularly eager to dig into Shoigu and Tsalikov, as there was no appropriate "go-ahead."
Igor Tushkevich, the son of the general director of Bamstroyput, was initially detained. The young man was sent to pretrial detention and released under house arrest when his father returned to the country (the younger Tushkevich was simply acting as a hostage). The general director of Bamstroyput testified against Abdurakhmanov and the entire leadership of the Ministry of Defense, including Shoigu and Tsalikov. However, of these individuals, the investigation was only interested in Abdurakhmanov, who was placed on the international wanted list. According to the Cheka-OGPU and http://Rucriminal.info, Tsalikov and Shoigu fought to the last to pin the embezzlement case on Abdurakhmanov. But Shoigu's "war" over Tsalikov was lost, and he was placed under house arrest. True, he faces ridiculous charges related to the "Bamstroyput" incident. Anton once gave Tsalikov a Honda Gold Wing motorcycle worth 2,286,000 rubles, which on July 3, 2019, was registered to the son of the former Deputy Minister of Defense. Investigators deemed this a bribe. This is despite the fact that Tsalikov and Shoigu had been embezzling hundreds of billions of rubles through "Bamstroyput" since their days as heads of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. This is hardly surprising, however. Shoigu actively uses "Bamstroyput" as head of the Security Council. He lobbied for the transfer of several buildings on Teatralny Proyezd in the heart of Moscow to the Security Council. This includes the Ministry of Emergency Situations building, where Shoigu served as a newly appointed minister in the 1990s, as well as the former Chinese Baths and a hotel. In addition to the renovation work, the new Security Council headquarters complex will also house a Security Council situation center, for which, like the major renovations, billions of rubles have already been allocated.
