The anti-corruption purge throughout the Ministry of Defence now it additionally touches the chief of employees and commander of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine Valerij Gerasimov. A army court docket arrested his deputy, the foremost Vadim Shamarin, who additionally heads the Defense Communications Directorate, accusing him of getting “accepted a very massive bribe”. If convicted, Shamarin faces 15 years in jail.
It’s concerning the fourth arrest of a senior protection official because the finish of April, the third because the Defense Minister final week Sergei Shoigu he was changed by the economist Andrei Belousov within the authorities reshuffle following theinauguration of Vladimir Putin’s fifth time period within the Kremlin.
The message is obvious: whereas the battle in Ukraine and the confrontation with the West guarantees to be lengthy, the widespread corruption within the Russian protection sector should give option to the “optimization” of spending and technological innovation and, consequently, the corrupt generals to the technocrats.
Arrests and removals
Deputy Minister of Defense Timur Ivanov he was arrested on April 23 and blatantly displayed in uniform within the defendants’ cage. A efficiency that foreshadowed that Shojgu wouldn’t final lengthy in his place, because it turned out to be.
Two days after Shoigu’s transfer from Defense to the top of the Security Council, the director of personnel of the Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant General, was arrested Yuri Kuznetsov and, two days in the past, the foremost common Ivan Popovformer commander of the 58th Army combating in Ukraine, nom de guerre “Spartacus”.
With them, three civilians have been additionally arrested: a buddy of Ivanov, the supervisor of a building firm accused of paying bribes and the previous head of a number of firms depending on the Ministry of Defense.
Other key figures from Shoigu’s 12 years on the Defense Ministry have been additionally dismissed. Putin fired on Monday Jurij Sadovenkoone other deputy minister, and changed by the auditor of the Court of Auditors Oleg Saveliov, Belousov’s former assistant. Is Wednesday Rossijana MarkovskajaShoigu’s former spokesman, mentioned he would go away Defense for a brand new job.
The Kremlin has denied {that a} purge is underway. “The combat towards corruption is steady work, it isn’t a marketing campaign,” commented the spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. “It is an integral a part of our legislation enforcement actions.”
Words which, nevertheless, didn’t appease the protests of the so-called “voenkor”, portmanteau of voennyj correspondentor “blogger Z”, because the struggle correspondents or army consultants who frequently write on Telegram are referred to as.
Protests over the arrest of Popov “Spartacus”
Many are protesting Popov’s arrest for “large-scale fraud” and he now faces as much as 10 years in jail. General “Spartacus” had already been fired and – in line with the Telegram channel Rybar – “despatched into exile in Syria” final July, lower than a month after fallita rivolta di Evgenij Prigozhin.
Like the deceased chief of the Wagner mercenary firm, Popov additionally denounced that his superiors ignored his requests for troop rotation and the sending of ammunition, thus inflicting an extreme variety of deaths on the entrance. His forces fought within the Zaporizhzhia area, southern Ukraine, and had earned the respect of the “voenkors”.
“For my half, I wish to remind you that Major General Ivan Popov is likely one of the most revered officers within the military. He is a type of who, on the head of his subordinates, stopped the enemy counteroffensive within the path of Zaporizhzhia in June 2023, ”wrote the Telegram channel Grey Zonenear the previous Wagner mercenaries.
“Everyone is aware of concerning the battle between General Popov and the chief of employees,” he protested It reveals Podoljak on his channel adopted by 2.9 million subscribers. “The purpose is easy: she had the braveness to inform her superiors what the others most popular to maintain quiet by hiding her face. And that is why he was kicked out of the military. And now they intend to place him in jail. Probably for example.”
Popov’s mother and father are additionally satisfied that the arrest is nothing greater than a posthumous revenge by the Kremlin. It issues little that “Spartacus” is accused of getting stolen nearly 100 million rubles, over a million euros, which might have been supposed for the acquisition of metallic buildings for use in Russian protection traces.
For Russian army skilled Aleksandr Khramtchikhin, these in energy have recognized “for a very long time” that the protection price range is used inefficiently, however with the battle in Ukraine this actuality “has turn into too apparent to show a blind eye to.” Especially since Russia, beneath the blow of Western sanctions, has reoriented its financial system in direction of the protection trade, with a 70% enhance within the federal protection price range in 2024. The actual purpose of the purge is to win in Ukraine, not defeat corruption.
Gerasimov’s future is in danger
Shamarin’s arrest now will increase doubts about the way forward for Gerasimov. Already after the federal government reshuffle, regardless of his reconfirmation, many analysts had puzzled how lengthy it could final. Also as a result of a brand new minister often brings with him his chief of employees.
And a attainable elimination of Gerasimov, commented the British skilled Mark Galeottimay very well be unhealthy information for Ukraine, “as a result of behind the scenes there are a selection of potential candidates who would most likely do a greater job, like Colonel General Mikhail Teplinskijcommander of the Airborne Forces, and even the identical ‘General Armageddon’, Sergey Surovikindisgraced due to his implicit assist for final yr’s mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenaries.”
Surovikin was final seen in public in September 2023 throughout a mission in Algeria. Many “voenkors” are already hoping for his return to the battlefield in Ukraine.