NIZHNY NOVGOROD. Nov 21 (Interfax-AVN) - Military prosecutors have brought charges of arms theft against the chief of an arms depot in the Moscow military district.
The charged officer headed an arms depot in a unit of the Mulino garrison, a spokesman for the garrison prosecutor's office told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday. An inspection that came to the unit on November 4 found out that seven Kalashnikov assault rifles, a night-vision device and about 10 field-glasses were missing from the depot. The head of the installation was in hospital for treatment at the moment.
Investigators soon found out that the stolen arms had been transported to the Tyumen and Vladimir region and to the Komi autonomous republic.
Military prosecutors teamed up with the Federal Security Service department in the Nizhny Novgorod region and arrested the depot chief on Tuesday. His name is not disclosed in the interests of the investigation, but it is known that he holds the rank of ensign.
The detainee confessed that he had been selling arms illegally since January 2001. The investigation has so far been unable to calculate how many pieces of arms were sold since then, the spokesman said.