Kyiv suspects former Ukrainian Defense Minister of high treason
The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine suspects ex-Minister of Defense Dmytro Salamatin of high treason “in the interests of Russia,” undermining defense capabilities and the state and economic security of the country, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko stated on Facebook.
The Prosecutor General's Office claims that Salamatin participated in “the criminal organization” headed by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and took part in large-scale illegal seizure of property. He undermined government activities by “ousting Ukraine from the world weapons market in favor of Russia.”
Salamatin is suspected of undermining contracts between the Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau, and the Antonov and Progress Design Bureaus with the Defense Ministry of Iraq for $560 million. Ukraine had committed to supply Baghdad military equipment and to provide maintenance and repair.
Dmytro Salamatin was Ukraine’s Defense Minister from the beginning of February to the end of December 2012. He became the General Director of the State Concern Ukroboronprom two years before that. In 2006 to 2011 he was twice elected as the People's Deputy of the Party of Regions, the First Deputy Head of the Parliamentary Committee for Science and Education and a Member of the Budget Committee.
In 2015, the newspaper Le Monde and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists or ICIJ published investigation information indicating that in 2006 and 2007, Salamatin had $11.4 million in HSBC bank. Salamatin’s current official address is in the Moscow suburb of Serebryany Bor. It is known that before 2005, Salamatin had Russian citizenship.