The corruption scandal in the Russian Ministry of Defense is starting to take dimensions, as the arrest of a third person was announced after the Deputy Minister of Defense Timur Ivanov and his associate Sergei Borodin. The third in a row to be taken into custody, as announced by the Moscow Courts Service, is the co-founder of the construction company Olimpsitistroy Alexander Fomin. Fomin is suspected of bribing Ivanov and Sergei Borodin, a close associate of Ivanov.
The court service said that Fomin, “having a relationship of trust with Ivanov”, is suspected of “providing services” to Ivanov, Borodin and others. “Also Fomin and other persons, acting as an organized group, contributed to Ivanov receiving a particularly large bribe in the form of illegally providing him with real estate-related services,” it said.
Business newspaper Kommersant wrote that investigators suspect Ivanov was bribed by Fomin in exchange for helping him secure contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars for his company.
Ivanov, who insists he is innocent, was arrested at work on Tuesday by the Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet KGB. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. There was no immediate comment from Fomin or Borodin on the matter.
The widening scandal is the worst to hit the defense ministry since the start of the war in Ukraine and is dominating politics and the media ahead of a government reshuffle that President Vladimir Putin is expected to announce next month.
Ivanov was a close ally of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who is at risk of being hit by the scandal. A source told the state-run TASS news agency that Shoigu fired Ivanov after his arrest. TASS reported that investigators seized all bank accounts and assets of Ivanov and his family.
Some analysts see the case as an attempt to weaken Shoigu and a sign of elite tensions and rivalries as Putin prepares to appoint a new government next month after being re-elected in March for another six-year term.
Shoigu, however, is expected to keep his post. Under his direction, Russian forces regrouped and regained the upper hand in Ukraine, with a series of territorial gains over the past two months.
Ivanov, acting deputy minister since 2016, was in charge of real estate management, housing, construction and mortgages at the defense ministry – whose spending has skyrocketed since the start of the war. It has long been the subject of journalistic investigations.
In 2022, the Russian Anti-Corruption Foundation, headed by the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, investigated Ivanov. He claimed that he and his family lived in luxury, with yachts, helicopters, visits to the French Riviera, diamond purchases and even a 19th-century mansion in one of Moscow’s most expensive districts.
Forbes magazine ranked Ivanov among the richest men in the Russian security forces. Other investigations have suggested corruption in the Russian reconstruction of Mariupol, the Ukrainian city on the Sea of Azov controlled by Russian forces.
#corruption #scandal #revealed #Russian #Ministry #Defense #proportions
