DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia) July 19, 2017 Wednesday EQUIPMENT WAS REMOVED FROM TANKS ON THE NEW YEAR'S NIGHT by Oleg Goryaev Source: Kommersant, July 17, 2017, p. 4 HIGHLIGHT: CONTRACT SERGEANTS RECEIVED MINIMAL TERMS OF IMPRISONMENT FOR THEFT OF RADIO STATIONS AND CONTROL BLOCKS FROM TANKS; Contract servicemen were sentenced for theft of military property in the North Caucasian Military District. The North Caucasian district military court declined the appeals of contract junior sergeants of the 102nd Russian military base (Gyumri, Armenia) Dmitry Londarenko and Nikolai Onishchuk, 22. The fifth garrison court sentenced them to one year and four months and one year of imprisonment in penal colony respectively for theft of radio stations and command blocks from tanks for the purpose of theft. The instance of appeals of the North Caucasian district military court heard the complaints about the sentences to Londarenko and Onishchuk sentenced according to accusation of two episodes of theft committed by a group of persons according to preliminary conspiracy (article 159 of the Criminal Code). According to documents of the case, junior sergeants Londarenko and Onishchuk, 22, who came from Ukraine and served since 2013 under contract in Armenian Gyumri as tank driver and deputy commander of a platoon respectively decided to steal radio stations from the technical park of Alagyaz training range. A local resident who worked as a cook in the mess room was their accomplice. In the afternoon of December 30 of 2016, the criminals drove in the cook's car to the combat hardware park of the 102nd Russian military base. Londarenko unnoticeable entered the garage, opened the lids of hatches of three T-72B tanks and stole radio stations from them. Afterwards, the fellow-servicemen carried the equipment to the car of the accomplice who had to sell the stolen items. Nest night, the sergeants decided to repeat the attempt but this time the cook gave them his car but did not go with the servicemen and stayed home to celebrate the New Year. Investigators found out that at 3 a.m. on January 1 of 2017, the junior sergeants penetrated into the park of combat vehicles again. Onishchuk was on the watch again and Londarenko carried out five radio receivers, two radar stations and three command blocks K-1. The criminals loaded the equipment into the car that they drove back to the owner. The theft was discovered in the morning of January 8, officers of the military unit conducted investigation and found involvement of Londarenko and Onishchuk into the crime. They did not deny the guilt and said that the cook proposed them to commit the theft having promised to pay 60,000 Armenian drams (approximately 7,500 rubles) for one radio station. A criminal case was instituted against Londarenko and Onishchuk about the fact of theft of property of the military unit worth 455,200 rubles. Law-enforcement agencies of Armenia conducted investigation against the cook. During preliminary investigation the servicemen compensated the military unit for 132,000 rubles of loss. Having studied the case about theft of radio equipment, the fifth garrison military court sentenced Londarenko to one year and four months of imprisonment and Onishchuk to one year of imprisonment in penal colony. The court did not impose monetary penalties on the sentenced but obliged them to repay the remaining damage worth 322,000 rubles. The contract servicemen considered the sentence too harsh: their families are in dire straits and they have no possibility to take care about them. However, the instance of appeals considered the sentence of the garrison court justified and declined the complaint. [Translated from Russian]