Russia’s military leadership has been rocked by corruption scandals and arrests for weeks – in the middle of the war of aggression against Ukraine. Now there are several arrest warrants.
A court in Moscow has ordered the pre-trial detention of another Russian army general on suspicion of corruption. Former Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov was taken to the Lefortovo remand prison, the Russian state news agency Tass reported.
According to the agency, 69-year-old Bulgakov had unsuccessfully requested to serve his pre-trial detention under house arrest. The general was responsible for the material and technical equipment of the armed forces in the first months of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine until he was released on September 24, 2022, after numerous mishaps.
Several members of Russia’s military leadership arrested
The crackdown on high-level corruption began on April 23 with the arrest of Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, a close ally of former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whom Putin dismissed in June. Ivanov is also imprisoned in Lefortovo. Since then, at least five military and defense ministry officials have been arrested.
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According to investigators, under Bulgakov, a system was created to supply troops with low-quality provisions from dry rations at inflated prices. For example, beef was replaced with pork and chicken and the calorie count of the supply packages was also reduced. The soldiers who have been waging war against Ukraine since the invasion on February 24, 2022, have received low-quality provisions. Bulgakov has been the recipient of the high award “Hero of Russia” since 2016.
The general is said to have lived in luxury while the soldiers were inadequately provided for. He is said to have lived in a villa with 620 square meters of living space with an annual income of 15 million rubles (around 158,000 euros) and to have owned an apartment and several plots of land, among other things.
Abuse of office and embezzlement
The Russian military apparatus is considered to be extremely corrupt. Under the new Minister of Defense, Andrei Belousov, the military leadership is also to be purged of abuse of office and embezzlement. Most recently, the Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Vadim Shamarin, and the Head of the Main Personnel Department, Yuri Kuznetsov, were among those arrested.
Above all, the head of the Russian private army Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had repeatedly complained about bribery in the military leadership and blamed it on previous defeats in the war of aggression against Ukraine. The former confidant of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin died in a plane crash in August – two months after a failed uprising. Prigozhin’s criticism was directed primarily at Sergei Shoigu, whom Putin appointed as the new secretary of the National Security Council after his dismissal.
Source: Stern
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