According to Moscow investigators, T. Ivanov was involved in a criminal conspiracy in which he accepted “particularly large bribes” while overseeing the construction and repair projects of the Ministry of Defense. It is stated that the Moscow court sent him to pretrial detention for two months, and T. Ivanov’s friend Sergey Borodin was also detained.
But on Wednesday, the independent news website iStories, citing two sources close to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), reported that the real reason for Ivanov’s arrest was suspicion of treason.
“Bribery charges are aimed at the public. Now they don’t want to talk publicly about treason – it’s a big scandal. After all, he is the Deputy Minister of Defense,” the publication quoted one of the sources as saying.
A second source said that Vladimir Putin “gave the order convinced that the case was specifically about treason” and that “no one would have arrested [Ivanovo] for corruption”.
The arrest of V. Ivanov was first reported on April 23. in the evening. According to Russian state media, he will be held in Moscow’s Lefortovo pre-trial detention center pending an investigation by authorities.
Telegram channel 112 reported that investigators had launched a search of Ivanov’s villa in Dagestan, while VChK-OGPU channel reported that three more people had been detained.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said late Wednesday that Putin had been informed of Ivanov’s arrest and that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had been “informed in advance.” It is known that T. Ivanovas is a long-time ally of S. Shoigu, in 2012 worked as his deputy in the Moscow region.
As deputy defense minister, Ivanov oversaw various construction projects, including the main cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces, Moscow’s Patriot Park amusement park, and the reconstruction of occupied Mariupol. in 2019 he was included in Forbes Russia magazine’s list of the country’s richest security officials.
After T. Ivanov’s arrest, one source assured Forbes that the Russian is “Shoigu’s man”, but he “slipped a bit” and “questions have piled up” around him. The source speculated that his arrest could be part of the “cleansing” of S. Shoigu’s immediate environment, in preparation for the minister’s possible departure from the Ministry of Defense.
In relation to T. Ivanov, journalists have conducted several corruption investigations. in 2022 Team Navalny reported that the family of the deputy minister has many expensive real estate properties in the Moscow region. Later that year, they reported that Ivanov’s first wife had spent hundreds of thousands of euros on jewelry, clothes and vacations over the years, with third-party individuals and companies regularly footing the bills. T. Ivanov was subject to US and EU sanctions.
15 years at risk
The arrest of a longtime ally of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is Russia’s most dramatic corruption case in years, and comes at a time when military spending has soared due to the war in Ukraine.
48-year-old T. Ivanovs oversaw construction and public procurement by the armed forces and was involved in a major project – the reconstruction of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which was occupied by Moscow forces.
“The Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation has been sent to a pre-trial detention center,” the press service of the Moscow Courts said in a statement on social media.
He faces up to 15 years in prison for taking bribes “on an especially large scale,” it added.
Several independent Russian media reported that Mr. Ivanov and his family amassed a huge fortune from gratuity fees for contracts he negotiated at the ministry.
In December 2022, A. Navalno’s team claimed to have received thousands of leaked e-mails from Svetlana Maniovič, T. Ivanov’s wife, which show a luxurious lifestyle far exceeding his official salary.
The letters show she spent hundreds of thousands of euros on luxury cars, jewellery, clothes, parties and high-end properties and yacht charters in the south of France.
Some of the transactions are said to have been conducted through third parties, including Defense Ministry contractors.
The judge sent T. Ivanovas to pretrial detention at least until June 23. He will be held in the notorious Lefortov prison in Moscow, state news agency TASS reported.
Activists, including Navalny, have long argued that corruption is widespread in President Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
But senior government figures are rarely arrested, usually because of political infighting, analysts say.
Activists say the huge sums being spent on the war in Ukraine have given officials new opportunities to enrich themselves through secret government procurement deals.
Tags: accusations corruption cover
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