It all started last month with the arrest of a Russian Deputy Minister of Defense. Afterwards, the head of the ministry’s personnel department was taken to court. This week, two more senior military officers were detained. All face corruption charges, which they deny.
The arrests began after President Vladimir Putin began his fifth term and shuffled your allyformer Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to a new position.
It immediately raised questions about whether Putin was reasserting control over the Defense Ministry amid the war in Ukrainewhether a territorial battle had broken out between the military and the security services, or whether some other scenario was unfolding behind the Kremlin walls.
A look at what’s behind the arrests and why they’re happening now:
HOW SERIOUS IS CORRUPTION IN RUSSIA?
Corruption scandals are not new and officials and senior officials have been accused of profiting from their positions for decades.
The graft in Russia works as both an incentive and a punishment. It’s a way of “encouraging loyalty and urging people to be on the same page” as well as a method of control, said Sam Greene, director of Democratic Resilience at the Center for European Policy Analysis.
Putin wants everyone to have “a skeleton in the closet,” security expert Mark Galeotti said in a recent podcast. If the state has compromising material about key officials, it can cherry-pick who to attack, he added.
Corruption “is the essence of the system,” said Nigel Gould-Davies, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
The war in Ukraine led to increased defense spending, which only increased opportunities for corruption.
WHO WAS ARRESTED?
Former Deputy Minister of Defense Timur Ivanov — the first officer arrested in April and the most senior to date — oversaw large military construction projects and had access to vast sums of money. These projects included rebuilding parts of the destroyed port city of Mariupol in Ukraine.
The team led by the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny alleged that Ivanov, 48, and his family owned elite real estate, enjoyed lavish parties and trips abroad even after the start of the war. They also claimed that Ivanov’s wife, Svetlana, divorced him in 2022 to avoid sanctions and continue to live a luxurious lifestyle.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitri Peskov said Thursday that the recent arrests are not a “campaign” against corruption, but reflect ongoing activities in “all government bodies”.
Peskov and Ivanov were once part of an embarrassing episode caught on camera. Navalny’s team shared 2022 footage of the Kremlin spokesman celebrating at Ivanov’s ex-wife’s birthday party. In the video, Peskov, with Ivanov by his side, is seen wearing a watch estimated to be worth $85,000.
In April, the Investigative Committee, Russia’s main law enforcement agency, reported that Ivanov is suspected of accepting an especially large bribe – a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Since then, other arrests on bribery charges have included Lieutenant General Yury Kuznetsov, head of the Defense Ministry’s personnel directorate; Major General Ivan Popov, career soldier and former commander of Ukraine; and Lieutenant General Vadim Shamarin, deputy chief of the military General Staff. Shamarin is deputy to Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff.
A fifth ministry official was arrested on Thursday – Vladimir Verteletsky, who headed a division in the ministry’s defense procurement department. He was accused of abuse of power that resulted in damages worth more than 70 million rubles (about $776,000), the Investigative Committee said.
Additionally, the deputy head of the federal penitentiary service for the Moscow region, Vladimir Telayev, was arrested on Thursday on charges of large-scale bribery, according to Russian reports.
WHY IS THIS HAPPENING NOW?
The arrests suggest that “really blatant” corruption at the Defense Ministry will no longer be tolerated, said Richard Connolly, an expert on the Russian economy at the Royal United Services Institute in London.
Shortly after his inauguration, Putin replaced Shoigu as defense minister with Andrei Belousov, an economist. Peskov said that Russia increasing the defense budget it must fit into the country’s broader economy.
Peskov said Russia’s defense budget represents 6.7% of gross domestic product. This is a level not seen since the Soviet era.
“There is a view that this needs to be spent more sensibly,” Connolly said.
Before his death in a still-mysterious plane crash last year, the mercenary boss Evgeny Prigozhin led a brief rebellion against the country’s military leadership, saying it mismanaged the war and denied weapons and ammunition to its forces.
Belousov’s appointment is “a reluctant recognition on the part of the Kremlin” that it has to pay attention to these problems, Gould-Davies said.
It is also essential that the war is managed correctly because Russia’s economy depends on it. Russians are earning higher salaries, driven by the growth of the defense sector. While this has created problems with inflation, it allows Putin to continue to deliver on promises to improve living standards.
Greene said the government needs to “keep up the war to keep the economy going,” but it must also ensure that costs — and corruption — are not greater than necessary.
Connolly said it is also possible that Belousov, the new defense minister, is expelling his predecessor’s associates and sending the message that “things are going to be done differently.”
Popov’s case could be different. He fought in Ukraine and was suspended in July 2023 for criticizing the Defense Ministry leadership – as did Prigozhin – and blaming it for a lack of weapons and poor supply lines that led to many Russian casualties.
He may now be facing the consequences of that criticism.
COULD THIS BE A GROUND BATTLE?
It is unclear whether the Kremlin or Russia’s security services, especially the State Security Service, or FSB, are the driving force behind the arrests.
It is possible that officials far enough removed from Putin were caught in the middle of a turf war unrelated to the appointment of the new defense minister.
Security services, Greene said, may be trying to “push back” the military dominance seen since Putin ordered the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Although the Kremlin denies that any kind of purge is taking place, “if Putin didn’t want it to happen, it wouldn’t be happening,” Greene said.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?
There are likely to be more arrests as the new defense minister wants to show that “there is a price to be paid” for corruption in order to control it, Connolly said.
Greene added that it is also possible that “enterprising” investigators think that opening a criminal case against a general is a great opportunity to advance their career.
However, because corruption is so endemic, it could cause panic throughout the system.
If employees are arrested for behavior that was previously permitted even though it was illegal, that could change the “red lines,” Greene said.
If the detentions continue or expand beyond the Ministry of Defense, it could lead to accusations and those responsible “running for the exits,” he said, and that is something the Kremlin wants to avoid.
Because the system is based on corruption, Greene said, attacking it too hard could cause it to “fall apart.”
