Arrested former head of the Defense Ministry's personnel department, Yuri Kuznetsov, sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to an anti-corruption lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor General's Office. The office is demanding that the lieutenant general and his family's property, worth 504,8 million rubles, be forfeited to the state.

Kuznetsov, accused of bribery amounting to 80 million rubles, described himself in his letter as a "conscientious, honest man" and emphasized that all income was obtained legally through the Ministry of Defense's Center for Special Programs for the performance of "official duties." The general also pointed out the prosecutor's haste in filing the lawsuit without awaiting a verdict in the criminal case and expressed dissatisfaction with the demand to confiscate even inherited jewelry, as well as the property of his daughters and their children.

Kuznetsov's lawyer, Alexei Pershin, noted that his client appealed to the president "as the guarantor of the Constitution," since "there's nowhere higher to go." An official response from the Kremlin has not yet been received.