A senior Russian military officer has been arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes, authorities said Tuesday, a high-profile arrest that comes as Moscow’s war in Ukraine is in its third year.
Timur Ivanov, 48, one of Russia’s 12 deputy defense ministers, was sanctioned by the United States and the European Union in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that both President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had been informed about the arrest.
The Investigative Committee, Russia’s main law enforcement agency, reported Ivanov’s detention without providing any details of the charges against him, saying only that he is suspected of accepting an especially large bribe – a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison. .
According to the Ministry of Defense website, Ivanov was appointed to the position in 2016 by presidential decree and oversaw property management, housing and medical support for military personnel, construction and reconstruction of facilities.
Russian media claimed he was responsible, among other things, for some of the construction in Mariupol – a port city in Ukraine’s partially occupied Donestk region that was heavily bombed and occupied by Russian forces at the start of the war in 2022.
That same year, the team of the late Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader and anti-corruption activist, alleged that Ivanov and his family had lived an extravagant life, full of lavish foreign trips, lavish parties and elite real estate.
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