Russian deputy defence minister detained on ‘large-scale’ bribery charges

Russian Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov was detained on Tuesday on suspicion of taking bribes “on a particularly large scale”, the country’s Investigative Committee announced.

Ivanov and another man, Sergey Borodin, had been remanded in custody until 23 June for entering into a “criminal conspiracy with third parties” to receive bribes under the guise of Defence Ministry contracting work, Moscow’s court service said on Wednesday morning.

UPDATE
The real reason behind Ivanov’s arrest could be accusations of treason, Russian independent media outlet IStories reported Wednesday.

A source in the Federal Security Service (FSB) told IStories that the Russian authorities did not want to “talk publicly” about treason as it could cause a “big scandal”.

Ivanov’s lawyer Murad Musaev told state news agency RIA Novosti that his client had only been charged with bribery, adding that no treason case had been opened against him.

Both men were detained under an article of Russia’s criminal code applied in cases where bribes exceed €10,000, the court service said. If convicted, they could face up to 15 years behind bars.

Footage from the court on Wednesday morning showed Ivanov in military uniform, with state news agency TASS citing sources that said he had been detained at work and denied the allegations against him. Just hours before his detention on Tuesday evening, Ivanov had attended a Defence Ministry meeting with Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu and other officials.

Both Shoigu and Russian President Vladimir Putin had been informed of Ivanov’s detention in advance, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told state news agency TASS.

Having been appointed as a deputy to Shoigu in 2016, Ivanov has been described by the European Union as “tenth in the overall hierarchy of the Russian military leadership” and was primarily responsible for the Ministry’s construction projects, including Russia’s “reconstruction” of occupied Mariupol.

Named by Forbes as one of the richest officials in Russia’s security structures in 2019, Ivanov has been under US, UK and EU sanctions and a travel ban since 2022 for his role in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

That year, Ivanov and his then-wife Svetlana Maniovich were the subject of an investigation by Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, which alleged that Maniovich had been leading a “glamorous life” in Europe despite Ivanov’s role in Russia’s invasion. Having formally divorced Ivanov in June 2022, Maniovich was not sanctioned, leading Navalny’s supporters to call for sanctions against her at a protest in Paris in 2023.