Text taken from a dzen.ru post
Commentary by RUssian military journalist Boris Rozhin
[ColonelCassad] Businessman Dmitry Mizgir, one of the key defendants in a case involving the supply of substandard canned goods to the Ministry of Defense, was detained in Belarus. He was transferred to Russia and held in custody for two months.
As part of the investigation, property and assets worth several hundred million rubles were also seized. Jewelry, as well as other valuable items and documents, were seized from the businessman's wife during a search, TASS reports. Investigators believe Mizgir is one of the participants in a scheme through which approximately 170 tons of substandard canned goods worth approximately 700 million rubles were supplied to military units in 2024–2025.
According to law enforcement, cheaper ingredients—pieces of animal skin, lard, and starch—were used in the production of the goods instead of high-quality meat. Mizgir is also accused of acting as an intermediary in the transfer of a bribe to Viktor Tarazevich, the former head of the Defense Ministry's food department. Mizgir was on the federal wanted list for approximately three months.
According to law enforcement, he ~intended to flee through Belarus~, and the republic's KGB joined the search. Law enforcement checked several possible locations for the businessman and then tracked him through phone calls and surveillance footage. Mizgir was detained on July 25. He was later transported to Russia and taken into custody.
According to media reports, while on the wanted list, the businessman attempted to use his connections and, through intermediaries, negotiate with military investigators to have him removed from the wanted list. He was unsuccessful. A criminal case concerning the supply of substandard food products to the Ministry of Defense was opened on May 11, 2026, by the Main Military Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation following inspections by the military prosecutor's office and the Federal Security Service (FSB).
Investigators became interested in the supply of canned meat to military units in the Northern Military District and areas of the counter-terrorism operation (CTO). According to investigators, the product's recipes were violated: pieces of hide instead of meat, pork trimmings, lard, starch, and food additives prohibited by GOST standards were used. The canned food was supplied to units of the "West," "East," "South," and "Center" military groups, as well as the Black Sea Fleet.
The defense team for the arrested defendants does not deny that one of the batches of products may have been of inadequate quality. However, according to their lawyers, it was replaced with another batch. How the supply chain was structured: The supplier chain was complex and consisted of several companies. In 2024, Voentorg was responsible for contracted food supplies to the military. It transferred some of this responsibility to RBE, which purchased canned goods from Narmyasprom. Since January 2025, RBE has become the sole supplier of food supplies to the military.
However, the production chain remained unchanged: canned goods were still purchased from Narmyasprom, which in turn received them from the associated Selyatino meat processing plant in the Moscow region. According to the Main Military Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, in January 2024, the general director of Selyatino meat processing plant created an organized group.
Investigators believe its members ~reduced the cost of canned goods by using cheaper ingredients~ and thereby embezzled budget funds.
"The roles in the group, according to investigators, were clearly defined: producers from Selyatino meat processing plant manipulated the products, Narmyasprom management secured orders from the RBE, and Colonel Tarazevich distributed the canned goods in parts," Kommersant wrote.
Investigators believe Mizgir acted as a liaison between the participants in the alleged scheme, introducing them to each other and facilitating their interactions.
During interrogation, Viktor Tarazevich, the former head of the Defense Ministry's food supply department, claimed to have met Mizgir back in 2014, but could not recall where or under what circumstances. According to Tarazevich, he rarely interacted with the businessman at work thereafter and only occasionally congratulated him on holidays. The last time they saw each other, according to the former military man, was after his discharge in May 2026. At that time, Mizgir allegedly inquired about the mechanism for supplying food to military personnel.
However, one of Tarazevich's former deputies described the nature of their relationship differently. According to the witness, the colonel was closely acquainted with the businessman. Mizgir, he claimed, was associated with the companies "Consul" and "Moskovsky Shkolnik," which supplied food to units of the Western Military District from 2013 to 2018. During this same period, Tarazevich headed the district's food supply service.
The case materials also include testimony from a secret witness, according to which, in early 2025, Mizgir organized a meeting between Artem Baryshkov, CEO of the Selyatino MPC, and Tarazevich.
According to the witness, Tarazevich allegedly promised to help increase the company's orders, demanding in return "kickbacks for every can of stew" sent to the SVO zone.
Investigators believe the money was transferred through Mizgir. In total, approximately 10 million rubles may have passed through him.
Arrests of those involved in the case began in May-June 2026.
Those in custody include Viktor Tarazevich, former head of the food department of the Ministry of Defense's resource supply department; Alexey Baranov, CEO of Narmyasprom; and Dmitry Vislobokov, the company's commercial director. All three have been charged with large-scale fraud. A separate criminal case was also opened against Tarazevich for bribery.
Vislobokov's lawyers sought to have his pretrial detention mitigated. They argued that the investigation failed to present evidence of his involvement in fraud, and that the businessman himself had no intention of fleeing abroad and had merely booked tickets for a family vacation in Turkey.
"It's becoming clear that no one wants to hear the true background of this criminal case from him," said lawyer Robert Zinoviev.
According to his defense, Vislobokov believes this is an attempt to eliminate competitors in the military canned food supply market. Following Mizgir's arrest, two other defendants remain wanted in the case: Artem Baryshkov, CEO of the Selyatino canned
food processing plant, and Zinaida Grishchuk, the company's chief technologist. The case involving Selyatino's products has become the second major investigation into the supply of substandard canned goods to the Ministry of Defense.
At the end of 2024, top managers of the Lipetsk-based Gryazinsky Food Plant, which produced substandard products for military personnel, were arrested.
It took a war to start cleaning out these Augean stables.