The corruption scandal affecting the Ministry of Defense is getting bigger with new arrests

Another man, the third in a row, has been detained in a corruption probe centered on Russia’s deputy defense minister Timur Ivanovas announced today by the Moscow Courts Service.

The widening scandal is the worst to hit the defense ministry since the start of the war in Ukraine and is dominating the political arena and the media ahead of the government reshuffle that the president Vladimir Putin expected to announce next month.

According to the court service, Mr Alexander Fominco-founder of the construction company Olimpsitstroyis suspected of bribing Ivanov, who was taken into custody on Tuesday, and Sergei Borodina close associate of Ivanov, who is also being held.

The court service said that Fomin, “having a relationship of trust with Ivanov”, is suspected of “providing services” to Ivanov, Borodin and others. “Also Fomin and other persons, acting as an organized group, contributed to Ivanov receiving a particularly large bribe in the form of illegally providing him with real estate-related services,” it said.

Business newspaper Kommersant wrote that investigators suspect Ivanov was bribed by Fomin in exchange for helping him secure contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars for his company.

Ivanov, who insists he is innocent, was arrested at work on Tuesday by the Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet KGB. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. There was no immediate comment from Fomin or Borodin on the matter.

Ivanov was a close ally of the defense minister Sergei Shoigu, which is at risk of being hit by the scandal. A source told the state-run TASS news agency that Shoigu fired Ivanov after his arrest. TASS reported that investigators seized all bank accounts and assets of Ivanov and his family.

RIVALRIES

Some analysts see the case as an attempt to weaken Shoigu and a sign of elite tensions and rivalries as Putin prepares to appoint a new government next month after being re-elected in March for another six-year term.

Shoigu, however, is expected to keep his post. Under his direction, Russian forces regrouped and regained the upper hand in Ukraine, with a series of territorial gains over the past two months.

Ivanov, acting deputy minister since 2016, was in charge of real estate management, housing, construction and mortgages at the defense ministry – whose spending has skyrocketed since the start of the war. It has long been the subject of journalistic investigations.

In 2022, the Russian Anti-Corruption Foundation, headed by the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, conducted an investigation against Ivanov. He claimed that he and his family lived in luxury, with yachts, helicopters, visits to the French Riviera, diamond purchases and even a 19th-century mansion in one of Moscow’s most expensive districts.

Forbes magazine ranked Ivanov among the richest men in the Russian security forces. Other investigations have suggested corruption in the Russian reconstruction of Mariupol, the Ukrainian city on the Sea of ​​Azov controlled by Russian forces.

Source: RES-MPE

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