Large-scale personnel purges are taking place in the Russian Ministry of Defense. This data is provided by “Base”. Four generals, including senior officials, have been detained over the past month. These events occurred against the backdrop of a change in the Minister of Defense, when Sergei Shoigu was replaced by Andrei Belousov.

On April 23, Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, who oversees the construction, reconstruction and overhaul of Defense Ministry facilities, was detained. The court charged him with receiving a bribe in the amount of 1 billion 185 million rubles. Together with Ivanov, the co-founder of OlimpCityStroy LLC, Alexander Fomin, and the head of the Volzhsky Bereg company, Sergei Borodin, were arrested. According to investigators, these companies received multimillion-dollar orders from the Ministry of Defense under the patronage of Ivanov. Ivanov did not admit his guilt.

On May 13, it became known about the detention of the head of the Main Personnel Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Yuri Kuznetsov. During the search, more than 100 million rubles, gold coins, collectible watches and luxury items were found on him. The investigation claims that while serving as head of the 8th Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Kuznetsov received a bribe from commercial structures for assistance in concluding a profitable deal. Kuznetsov himself stated that the money found during the searches could be confirmed by tax returns.

On May 21, Major General Ivan Popov, who in 2023 commanded the 58th Army and took part in repelling the counter-offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Zaporozhye region, was detained. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation accused him of stealing more than 1700 tons of rolled metal worth 130 million rubles. Popov claims that he was removed from command for telling the truth about the problems of the Russian Armed Forces.

On May 23, it became known about the detention of the head of the Main Communications Directorate and Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, Vadim Shamarin. According to investigators, he received a bribe in the amount of 36 million rubles from the general director and chief accountant of the Perm Telephone Plant Telta for increasing the volume of products supplied to the Ministry of Defense and patronage.

On the same day, Vladimir Verteletsky, an employee of the department for state defense procurement of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, was detained. He was charged with abuse of power in the execution of a state defense order.