One of Russia's deputy defense ministers, Timur Ivanov, has been arrested in a corruption case. Suspected of accepting bribes, the general faces charges for which he could be sentenced to a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
The investigation and detention of the uniformed man is a rare event during the military campaign that Russia began 26 months ago against Ukraine.
The Anti-Corruption Foundation of the deceased opponent Alexei Navalny had accused Ivanov in 2022 of benefiting from construction projects in the city of Mariupol, taken that year by Russian troops.
The news of his arrest was announced on Tuesday night by the Investigative Committee, which in Russia is responsible for investigating major crimes. Apart from the accusation, he did not offer additional details except to point out that the bribe he would have received is especially large, which justifies the long sentence he would face in a trial.
The news of this arrest has also reached the Kremlin. "Russian President Vladimir Putin has been informed of the arrest of Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was also informed in advance," the president's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters.
The Ministry of Defense published on its website around 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday photos of a meeting of senior officials of that department led by Shoigu and which Ivanov also attended.
Ivanov was brought to justice this Wednesday. The soldier pleaded not guilty before the Basmanni District Court of Moscow, which ordered him to be provisionally detained for two months, a measure that can be extended.
"The investigation believes that Ivanov was part of a criminal conspiracy with third parties, he teamed up with them in order for an organized group to commit a crime," the court's press service explained. The conspiracy was intended to receive "properties and services on a particularly large scale during contracts and subcontracting work for the Ministry of Defense."
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, after Putin launched his "special military operation" against Ukraine.
Graduated in Mathematics from Moscow State University (MGU), he made a career and rose in the Russian atomic energy sector. He worked as an advisor to the Minister of Energy before being appointed deputy head of the Moscow Oblast administration in 2012, when Shoigu was its governor.
Ivanov has been Deputy Defense Minister for almost eight years. Previously, he worked in the fuel and energy industrial complex of the Russian Army and ran a company dedicated to the construction of housing for military personnel.
Before his appointment as deputy minister Ivanov "managed to fulfill several orders of special importance that were reported to Putin," writes Kommersant. For example, his company built the Sevastopol presidential cadet school (in Crimea) in three months of 2014, and in 2015 he completed the construction of the Pátriot military park near Moscow.
The accusation against the soldier is based on testimonies and the result of operational activities that FSB military counterintelligence agents have been carrying out for quite some time, a source explained to the Tass agency.
According to the Izvestia newspaper, along with the deputy minister, the agents also detained several people involved in the transfer of money through a "complex chain of intermediaries." The investigation agents began searching several properties belonging to the vice minister's family on Tuesday night.
Timur Ivanov's arrest has sparked rumors of infighting within the Russian military elite, as well as the possibility of him being charged with treason. Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov rejected the speculation and asked journalists to focus on official information.
As Deputy Minister of Defense, Ivanov was responsible for organizing the administration of assets, planning the purchase of assets (execution of works, provision of services) on behalf of Defense, construction, reconstruction and general repair of infrastructure for the needs of that ministry. Among his tasks was supervision of the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome.
In 2019, Forbes included Ivanov on the list of the richest men in Russia's law enforcement agencies.
Timur Ivanov was the target of an investigation published in 2022 by the Anti-Corruption Foundation founded by opposition leader Alexei Navalni, who died in prison last February. According to this organization, banned in Russia after being accused of being "extremist", Ivanov reviewed and benefited from construction projects in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, under Russian control since that year.
From exile, María Pévchij, who was Navalni's spokesperson and directs the foundation's investigations, congratulated herself on social networks. "Today is a great day," she said.
