Russia jails ex-deputy defence minister for 13 years in corruption trial

Russian former deputy defence minister Timur Ivanov was found guilty of corruption and condemned to 13 years in a penal colony on Tuesday, the harshest sentence yet in a series of graft cases against defence officials.

Ivanov was arrested in April 2024 on suspicion of taking bribes, and investigators added new embezzlement charges in October. More than a dozen people, including two other former deputy ministers, have been arrested in investigations into separate cases.

The trial was closed on grounds of state secrecy. Anton Filatov, a former logistics company boss on trial with Ivanov, received a 12-1/2 year sentence.

State media reported that the total sum embezzled was 4.1 billion roubles ($48.8 million), mostly in the form of bank transfers to two foreign accounts.

Ivanov, who pleaded not guilty, was stripped of all state awards and the court confiscated 2.5 billion roubles worth of property, cars and cash from him.

Russian media said he and his wife owned a luxury apartment in central Moscow, a three-storey English-style mansion on the outskirts of the capital and an extensive collection of classic cars, including a Bentley and an Aston Martin.

Russia's "Z-bloggers", an influential group of war correspondents, have voiced outrage at the scale of corruption reported in the defence establishment while young Russians are dying fighting in Ukraine.

One blogger, Alexander Kots, said 13 years was a long sentence but corrupt defence officials should be put on trial in wartime as "traitors to the Motherland".

SHOIGU DEPUTIES

Ivanov had since 2016 been responsible at the defence ministry for big logistics contracts, including those related to property management, housing and medical care.

He was a deputy to Sergei Shoigu, who was replaced as defence minister last year but retains an important role as secretary of President Vladimir Putin's Security Council.

Two of Shoigu's other former deputies have been arrested in separate investigations. In April, the former deputy head of the army's general staff, Lieutenant-General Vadim Shamarin, was sentenced to seven years in a penal colony for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.

The prosecutions signal a drive by Putin to clamp down on graft, inefficiency and waste in Russia's huge military budget as it wages war in Ukraine. Defence spending accounts for 32% of the federal budget this year.

Ukraine has also moved to clamp down on military corruption. A deputy defence minister in charge of weapons purchases was sacked in January, while in April authorities accused five suspects of involvement in a procurement scandal.

- Ends