The court left the head of the personnel service of the Ministry of Defense under arrest

The 2nd Western District Military Court upheld the arrest of the head of the personnel department of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant General Yuri Kuznetsov. Mediazona reports the results of the meeting to consider the appeal.

Kuznetsov was placed in custody until July 11. At the trial, he refused to have a lawyer assigned to him, who filed an appeal. Lawyer Sergei Shchegolev will defend the lieutenant general.

Kuznetsov asked to soften his preventive measure due to several illnesses. He associated some of them with his service in the area of ​​liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Kuznetsov’s arrest became known on May 14. He is accused of corruption. It is reported that the lieutenant general is accused of receiving a bribe during the repair of the Krasnodar Higher Military School, which trains military signalmen and code breakers. During the searches, more than 100 million rubles, gold coins, collectible watches and luxury items were discovered and confiscated from him, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

Kuznetsov was appointed to the position of head of the Main Personnel Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense in May 2023. From 2010 to 202, Kuznetsov served as head of the 8th Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

This body deals with issues of the service for protecting state secrets, managing special communications, encryption and military censorship. The Krasnodar school is specialized for military information security specialists.

• Kuznetsov’s arrest occurred against the background of a change in the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and the replacement of Minister Sergei Shoigu with Andrei Belousov. Earlier, Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Vadim Shamarin, was also arrested . He is accused of receiving a bribe on an especially large scale.
• Shortly before the change of minister, Shoigu's deputy Timur Ivanov was arrested (he was in charge of the military construction complex). Investigators claim that Ivanov received a bribe worth more than one billion rubles.
• On May 17, the court arrested the former commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army, Major General Ivan Popov, on charges of corruption.