Heads roll. At least five generals or army officials have been arrested in Russia since the end of April, while others have been replaced by surprise, as part of what looks like a purge within the Russian command, under suspicion of corruption.
After the surprise replacement of the Minister of Defense on May 12, two officials were arrested, investigators announced Thursday, May 23. The first, Vadim Chamarine, a high-ranking officer, is suspected of corruption, while the second, a soldier in charge of public defense orders, Vladimir Verteletski, was arrested for “abuse of power”.
“Abuse of power”
General Vadim Chamarine, deputy chief of staff in charge of communications, was placed in detention by a military court on Wednesday May 22, accused of having “accepted a particularly large bribe”, said indicated on Telegram the Investigative Committee, responsible in Russia for important criminal cases. He faces up to fifteen years in prison if convicted.
At the beginning of the evening, the Investigative Committee also announced the arrest and placement in preventive detention of a head of “a department of the public orders department of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Vladimir Verteletski” for abuse of power “, indicated this source, assuring that he had accepted “unfinished work” in 2022 as part of a public order, causing damage of more than 70 million rubles (710,000 euros at the current rate).
Cascading arrests
The strategic Defense sector has been plagued by corruption scandals for many years. But since the end of April, arrests have increased, affecting both the ministry and the military command. On Tuesday May 21, another Russian general, Ivan Popov, former commander of the 58th army fighting in Ukraine, was arrested for “fraud” and risks, according to the Russian Penal Code, up to 10 years in prison.
His arrest sparked numerous reactions in Russia among military experts, whose respect he had gained in the summer of 2023 after revealing the difficulties that Russian troops were facing on the front, which led to his dismissal. According to a post from the Telegram channel Dva Maïora (“The Two Commanders”), written by a Russian ultranationalist blogger, spotted by International mailIvan Popov was reportedly arrested on May 17 and imprisoned for two months, suspected of having embezzled the equivalent of 1.2 million euros.
Alexander Sladkov, war correspondent for Russian public television, protested his Telegram account. “We forgive imbeciles the lies and the losses, we can forgive others, I think, the pitiless truth.” “He had the courage to tell his superiors what others preferred to keep silent by hiding their faces”, criticized for his part Yuri Podolyakanother famous Russian blogger and “that’s why he was kicked out of the army.”
“No purges” says Moscow
Before him, Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov and Yuri Kouznetsov, in charge of human resources within the ministry, were also arrested for corruption. The Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigu, was himself replaced by an economist, Andreï Beloussov. This change was justified by President Vladimir Putin by the need to “optimize” military spending, which had exploded with the assault on Ukraine, a campaign that was intended to be lightning but which has lasted for more than two years. .
The Kremlin on Thursday denied any purge campaign, ensuring that it was a fairly classic anti-corruption operation. “The fight against corruption is continuous work, it is not a campaign” of purges, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov assured the press. “This is part of what our law enforcement does.”
Corruption within the high echelons of the Russian army was one of the criticisms loudly made by the boss of the Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led an aborted rebellion in June 2023 and died in a plane crash. plane.