MOSCOW: The highest-profile fraud case since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, one of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu’s representatives was ordered to be kept in custody on suspicion of taking bribes by a Soviet court on Wednesday.
The Federal Security Service ( FSB), the main force behind the Soviet-era KGB, detained deputy defense minister Timur Ivanov on Tuesday at work for accepting large bribes.
Ivanov was put in prison until June 23 by Moscow’s Basmanny District Court. Ivanov, 48, dressed in his dress, was shown standing in a glass box in court, frowning slightly, images released by the prosecutor support showed.
According to the court services, the investigation concludes that Ivanov engaged in a criminal plot with third parties and worked with them in advance to undertake an organized crime against an organized group.
The jury service claimed that the conspiracy was entitled to “property and services on a particularly significant scale during agreement and sub-contract work for the ministry of defense.”
He denied being innocent, according to Russian advertising. He faces 15 years in jail if convicted. State advertising gave the circumstance complete protection.
The immediate arrest of a Shoigu alliance, who Putin had tasked with waging the war in Ukraine, sparked rumors about a corruption crackdown and a public outcry against the corruption that had plagued Russia’s post-Soviet armed forces.
Some Russian influencers, who have long criticized senior generals of stupidity, were pleased to see the noticeable demise of a senior military official, who had long been linked to Putin’s explicit desire to see displayed during a war.
Some people claimed that Shoigu, a close ally of Putin and one of Russia’s most strong men, could learn a lesson from the arrest, while others claimed it was a blast to them.
The Kremlin claimed that Shoigu had also been informed, and that Putin had been made aware of this. The army government made no comment. A close friend of Ivanov’s, Sergei Borodin, was even charged with conspiring to get money.
Extravagant success
Ivanov, who has been in charge of the defense ministry’s cover, structure, and mortgages since the start of the war, was in charge of house management, housing, construction, and mortgages.
Let’s just say that the analysis did not begin yesterday, the day before yesterday, or even a fortnight ago, according to an unnamed Russian law enforcement cause. FSB defense counter- knowledge was involved, TASS said.
Ivanov and his family allegedly lived beautiful lifestyles, including appointments to Europe’s most expensive boutiques and a variety of luxurious real estate, according to literary investigations conducted since then.
In 2022, Russia’s Anti- Corruption Foundation, headed by the delayed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, investigated Ivanov.
It alleged that he and his family lived a life of leisure including boats, planes, visits to French Riviera, purchases of diamond and perhaps a 19th Century palace on one of Moscow’s most beautiful streets.
Forbes publication listed Ivanov as one of the wealthiest people in Russia’s security institutions. Another studies found problem in the Russian government’s reconstruction of Mariupol, a Ukrainian city on the Sea of Azov that is under Russian control.
Ivanov was unable to post as he was in confinement. Putin ordered the FSB to stop fraud in position defense procurement next month.
Ivanov, who graduated with a degree in mathematics from Moscow State University, rose through the ranks of Russia’s position nuclear power market before moving to become the assistant mind of Moscow country’s government under Shoigu, who was then governor.
Major generals have long been accused of corruption by some Russian military blogs, particularly after the army quickly withdrawn from elements of Ukraine after overextending itself during the first days of the war.
” It is clear that this is a geological change”, said Yuri Podolyaka, one of the most common pro- Soviet military blogs. ” And this is not about Ivanov… I hope this is only the beginning”.
