One of Russia’s deputy defense ministers, Timur Ivanov, has been arrested in the most serious corruption case in Russia since President Vladimir Putin sent the army into Ukraine 26 months ago. Suspected of accepting bribes, the general faces charges for which he could be sentenced to a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. The Anti-Corruption Foundation of the dead opposition Aleksei Navalni had accused Ivanov in 2022 of benefiting from construction projects in the city of Mariupol, taken that year by Russian troops.
The Investigative Committee, which deals with major crimes, said the arrest had taken place on Tuesday night and that the bribery would be particularly large to justify him facing such a long sentence.
News of the arrest also reached the Kremlin. According to his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, Putin was informed. Defense Minister Serguei Xoigú was told of the arrest before it took place, he added.
Ivanov pleaded not guilty yesterday before the Basmanni District Court of Moscow, which decreed a two-month provisional prison sentence for him, which can be extended. “The investigation believes that Ivanov was part of a criminal conspiracy with third parties, he teamed up with them to commit an organized group crime,” the court’s press service explained. Its aim was to receive “properties and services on a particularly large scale during contracts and subcontract work for the Ministry of Defence”.
Timur Ivanov was born 48 years ago in Moscow, he is one of Shoigu’s 12 deputy ministers and in 2022 he was sanctioned by the United States and the European Union following the start of the “special military operation” against Ukraine.
Graduated in Mathematics from Moscow State University (MGU), he made a career and rose in the atomic energy sector of Russia. He worked as an adviser to the Minister of Energy before being appointed deputy head of the administration of the Moscow province in 2012, when Xoigu was its governor. Before being appointed deputy defense minister almost eight years ago, he worked at the Russian military’s fuel and energy industrial complex and ran a company building military housing.
The accusation against him is based on witnesses and the result of investigative operations carried out for quite some time by agents of the military counterintelligence of the FSB, a source explained to the Tass agency. According to the newspaper Izvéstia, in addition to the deputy minister, the agents also arrested several people involved in the transfer of money through a “complex chain of intermediaries”.
The arrest of Timur Ivanov has raised rumors of infighting within the Russian elite, as well as the possibility that he may be charged with treason. Peskov dismissed the speculation and asked journalists to focus on official information.
In 2019 Forbes included Ivanov in the list of the richest men in the security forces of Russia.
In 2022, he was the subject of an investigation published by the Anti-Corruption Foundation, created by opposition leader Aleksei Navalni, who died in prison in February. According to this organization, banned in Russia after being accused of being an “extremist”, Ivanov reviewed and benefited from construction projects in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which has been under Russian control since that year.
The foundation alleged that the military man’s family lived a life of luxury that included yachts, helicopters, trips to the French Riviera, diamonds and a 19th-century mansion in Moscow.
