Rocket Fuel Sold For Personal Gain

Military officers at the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia systematically have been selling rocket fuel and pocketing the money, officials said Thursday.

The officers, led by the head of the launching site’s fuel supply service, have sold some $1.5 million in fuel over the past five years, the military prosecutor’s office said.

The report said the fuel had been sold to “unscrupulous businessmen.”

Since the Soviet collapse, the Russian army has been plagued by corruption and other crimes.