The incident centers on the warehouse head of military unit No. 20634 in Vladikavkaz, Svetlana Gorbunova, who attempted to move Ratnik protective helmets and night vision scopes from the storage facility for 600,000 rubles. The would-be buyer tipped off the FSB about the plan, leading to her conviction and a six-year prison sentence, plus loss of the rank of senior warrant officer. This outcome is reflected in the Vladikavkaz Garrison Military Court ruling, cited by socialbites.ca.
The events unfolded in 2023 when Gorbunova met a man named Alkhanov, who was involved in sending humanitarian aid to the front. He expressed interest in acquiring a helmet and night vision scopes from the warehouse, prompting Gorbunova to proceed. Recognizing that the goods were from the unit’s depot, the buyer alerted the Russian FSB and recorded the conversation, with additional actions conducted under ongoing security oversight to document the exchange.
On December 27, the depot manager permitted entry to a KamAZ truck marked with black military plates. The vehicle was loaded with five “6B47 Ratnik” helmets and 16 various models of night vision binoculars before driving away from the gate toward the FSB office, signaling the start of the transfer.
Immediately after the handover, Gorbunova met the buyer near the unit and accepted 600,000 rubles. Of the money, two five-thousand ruble notes were genuine while the remainder were counterfeit, leading to her swift detention. During the investigation, the exchange and timeline were reconstructed to confirm the sequence of events.
Forensic appraisal placed the value of the five helmets at about 160,000 rubles and the 16 night vision devices at roughly 4.2 million rubles, illustrating a substantial discrepancy between the internal accounting and the actual market value.
The military court found Gorbunova guilty of two offenses: embezzlement and theft connected with military property. An aggravating factor cited was the mobilization context, since the stolen equipment comprised items essential for combat operations and mission readiness.
She received a six-year sentence in a general-regime penal colony and was stripped of the rank of senior warrant officer, a consequence aligned with the severity of the crime within a military-security framework.
The illicit assets — the helmets and night vision devices — were returned to the warehouse inventory of the unit, and two genuine five-thousand ruble notes were returned to Alkhanov along with 118 counterfeit notes reportedly returned as they existed within the seized currency.
A member of the SVO who previously assisted in moving unauthorized migrants from Syria to Russia was given a postponement of the sentence, reflecting the overlapping legal matters handled within the same security apparatus around that time (Source: Vladikavkaz Garrison Military Court decision).