Vyacheslav Lobuzko’s deal: former curator of the National Defense Management Center betrays Shoigu’s and Tsalikov’s team in exchange for a suspended sentence

Vyacheslav Lobuzko’s deal: former curator of the National Defense Management Center betrays Shoigu’s and Tsalikov’s team in exchange for a suspended sentence

19 мая 2026 г.

Olga Filimonova

The former commander of the 3rd separate air defense army’s division (missile attack warning system), former deputy general director of PJSC RTI, General Vyacheslav Lobuzko, has been sentenced.

He was caught up in a campaign to punish individuals associated with the Russian air defense system. But he was given a suspended sentence of eight years. This happened because he actively testified about embezzlement cases against former Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov, who is always close to his friend Sergei Shoigu. Specifically, Lobuzko was responsible for the creation of the National Defense Ministry Control Center—Shoigu’s main and favorite project.

Lobuzko was accused of embezzling 130 million rubles while fulfilling a state defense order.

This is the general’s second conviction. He previously received a five-year suspended sentence for bribing a Defense Ministry inspector.

Even during the investigation, Lobuzko began actively testifying against Ruslan Tsalikov and other Shoigu associates in exchange for his freedom and a suspended sentence. Vyacheslav Lobuzko, as deputy head of the RTI concern (then a subsidiary of AFK Sistema), signed all financial documents for the Center 2014 project—the creation of a national defense command center. This was Shoigu’s pet project. Tsalikov served as his deputy, and Lobuzko worked with him on all operational matters. He also worked on the embezzlement of budget funds on an astronomical scale.

Lobuzko is one of the "fathers" of the Voronezh early warning radar system—stations designed to detect ballistic and cruise missiles—and a former division commander of the 3rd Separate Air Defense Army. Lobuzko is a close friend of the Commander-in-Chief of the Space Forces and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Defense Forces, Alexander Golovko.

The general is one of a long list of individuals who have been sent to prison for their ties to certain elements of the current air defense system. Moreover, they are being brought in mostly for unrelated matters, so as not to show any dissatisfaction.

Yevgeny Novitsky is under house arrest for embezzling pension funds. However, sources say he was "punished" for something else. As chairman of RTI, he long oversaw the development of hardware and computing systems for the ground-based stations of the Voronezh early warning system at AFK and served as an intermediary in financial transactions with senior Defense Ministry officials.

Earlier, one of the creators of the missile attack warning system, Alexander Talalaev, appeared in the dock as a defendant.

Alexander Talalaev is a great friend and companion of Major General Vyacheslav Lobuzko.

Talalaev headed and was one of the co-founders of the company "RITIS VKO" (a subsidiary of the RTI "Systems" concern), where Lobuzko once worked as the first deputy.

Denis Linkevichius, the military representative and head of the 502nd Military Representative Office of the Ministry of Defense, was convicted. He is the son of Alexander Linkevichius, who was a long-time executive at the RTI Group of Companies and, along with Lobuzko, was well-versed in the shadowy developments surrounding the Ministry of Defense’s air defense system during the Shoigu and Tsalikov eras. Linkevichius Jr. was released after his father began cooperating with the investigation.