MOSCOW: Russian Investigators said they have arrested two more senior defense ministry staffers in a widening corruption scandal.
The arrests of Lieutenant-General Vadim Shamarin and ministry official Vladimir Verteletsky raises the number of detained military and defence officials to five in the space of a month.
Investigators have also arrested three other men, including a former construction company boss suspected of paying bribes.
The authorities accuse Shamarin of taking bribes between 2016-2023 from a factory in the Ural mountains that produces communications equipment. They say he benefited to the tune of at least 36 million roubles ($400,000).
Shamarin’s home was searched in connection with the investigation, and he’s been placed in pre-trial detention for two months.  He faces a prison term of up to 15 years if found guilty.
Shamarin headed the army’s Signal Corps, responsible for military communications including confidential battlefield  command signals, since 2020.
The authorities charged Verteletsky, the senior procurement official, with abuse of authority in the execution of a state defence order. He reportedly signed off on incomplete work in 2022 that resulted in a loss of over 70 million roubles ($764,000).
Initially, the clampdown on high-level corruption began on April 23 when Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov was arrested for suspected bribe-taking.
Subsequently, the authorities arrested Lieutenant-General Yuri Kuznetsov, head of personnel at the defence ministry, and Major-General Ivan Popov, former commander of Russia’s 58th army.
The arrests are the biggest scandal to hit the Russian army in years. They come at a time when Moscow has regained the initiative in Ukraine and has a new defence minister.
Many widely saw the appointment of Andrei Belousov, who has no army experience, as a move to eliminate wastage and corruption. The authorities moved Sergei Shoigu, the previous minister, to become secretary of Russia’s Security Council.
(REUTERS)
