Deputy Defense Minister of Russia detained on suspicion of bribery / Article

On Wednesday, the Moscow court decided to keep Ivanov in custody at least until June 23.

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has been informed of the arrest of the high-ranking official, a rare occurrence during the war in Ukraine, Russian state media reported.

Ivanov is the most senior Russian official to be detained following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s failures on the Ukrainian front were also explained by widespread corruption in the Russian army, when leading officials stole the funds intended for the maintenance of the army.

According to information on the website of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, Ivanov is 49 years old. From 1999 to 2012, he worked in the companies of the fuel and energy complex, and then in the government of the Moscow region. From 2013 to 2016, he was the general director of the company “Oboronstroj”, but in May 2016 he was appointed as the deputy minister of defense.

Ivanov is in charge of issues of provision of apartments for troops, construction and capital repair of facilities of the Ministry of Defense, and military mortgages. He also dealt with the construction issues of the main temple of the armed forces.

Russia’s deputy defense minister is subject to sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union, Great Britain and Canada following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian opposition and independent media believe that Ivanov was one of the richest employees of Russian power structures, who made a living at the expense of state purchases.

In December 2022, the Anti-Corruption Foundation, established by Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, published a study on the Ivanov family.

It said that Ivanov and his wife Svetlana spent more than a million euros on vacations, villa and yacht rentals, jewelry and clothing, while Svetlana Ivanova’s personal bills were paid by a company that carries out construction work in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which was destroyed by the Russian army.

The investigation by the banned fund in Russia also found that Ivanov divorced his wife so that she could bypass EU sanctions.

“‘Today is a good day,'” Marija Pevchih, head of investigations of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, said on social media, commenting on Ivanov’s arrest. Due to the Kremlin’s repressions, she lives in exile, while most of the oppositionists remaining in Russia are behind bars. Navalny died in prison in the Arctic in February.