vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #564 / Crime watch / Reading article...

Russia’s federal prosecutors are searching for a Pacific Fleet officer who misappropriated a sum of 49 million rubles ($1,884,615) from a military unit he served in and then disappeared.

The inspection revealed that from Dec. 2003 to Dec. 2005 Andrei Zabelin, 36, Major in one of the Pacific Fleet units, sold food products received for the unit and pocketed the money. He managed to conceal his doings by submitting fake documents which stated that the food was delivered to the unit and consumed by the servicemen. According to the prosecutors, Zabelin illegally sold several dozen tons of products.

The truth about the crime did not emerge until Zabelin fled Vladivostok in 2005 when he was slapped with assault charges by a military court in an unrelated case. Using his personal 'Osa' short-barreled gun Zabelin shot directly into the eye of his apartment neighbor when they were having an argument in a staircase.

The incident took place in January of 2005, when Zabelin was returning home and saw three young men smoking in the staircase of his apartment building. Zabelin started the argument and during it fired a shot from his gun into the face of Ivan, his 22-year-old neighbor. The rubber bullet blinded Ivan’s eye.

The investigation was held by Vladivostok military prosecutors and Zabelin could face several years in prison for the assault. However, he never appeared at the court hearing scheduled for
December 2005. Since then Zabelin has remained on the federal most-wanted list, but the search has not yielded any results so far.