Head of Russia's flagship Tula drone center arrested on fraud charges

Local news outlet Myslo, citing sources, reported that Yevgeny Grigoryev, general director of TulaDron, a research and production center for unmanned aircraft systems in Tula, has been detained.

According to Myslo, a court ordered Grigoryev held in pretrial detention for two months, effective August 14, on charges of large-scale fraud under Part 4, Article 159 of Russia's Criminal Code. The Telegram channel Mash, which has close ties to Russia's security services, also confirmed the arrest.

A flagship project

Tula region authorities announced the launch of TulaDron in 2025, with plans for it to become one of Russia's ten largest facilities of its kind, developing and producing both military and civilian drones. Tula Governor Dmitry Milyaev said at the time that 1 billion rubles had been allocated for the center's launch, including 678.5 million rubles from the federal budget.

Wider crackdown in the sector

Russia has seen several arrests among drone manufacturers in recent weeks. In late July, billionaire Valery Kustov, chairman of the board and principal shareholder of the Efko group, was arrested in Moscow on suspicion of large-scale fraud in a case connected to the Transport of the Future project for developing unmanned aircraft systems. A Moscow court also ordered Vyacheslav Barbasov and Irakli Khazalia, the current and former general directors of drone manufacturer Drone Solutions, held pending trial.