Russia’s military is shaken by a major bribery scandal.
Putin has arrested Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, who is accused of accepting “huge” bribes.
“This is the most serious scandal within the Russian Ministry of Defense in over ten years,” writes the British intelligence service in a report.
The arrest took place on April 23, and Timur Ivanov was brought before the court on the same day. He is suspected of serious bribery and risks 15 years in prison.
According to the indictment, he allegedly participated in a “criminal conspiracy” that accepted bribes in connection with construction projects to rebuild the bombed-out Ukrainian, Russian-controlled, city of Mariupol. He himself denies any crime.
Indicates a power struggle
Ivanov is one of the most senior figures arrested since Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine began in 2022. He was deputy prime minister of the Moscow regional government in 2012, when current Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was governor of the city. They are both considered to have connections that go back a long way.
According to analysts, the accusations were a game for the galleries, reports Swedish EPN. The fact that Ivanov has now been arrested is considered to be a sign that Shoigu’s position has weakened recently and shows an ongoing power struggle within the Kremlin.
Immoderate luxury
Ivanov became deputy defense minister in 2016 and has since lived a life of almost unlimited luxury.
In his income declaration for 2018 it appears that he then owned 22 cars, writes British intelligence in a report.
“The data do not fit well with Putin’s message in his address to the nation in February, where the president said he wanted to see a new elite in the country consisting of the heroes from the war in Ukraine,” the agency writes, among other things.
It is stated that the scandal is the most serious within the Russian Ministry of Defense since former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was fired in 2012.