High-ranking Russian military officers are being arrested. Why is this happening?

It began last month with the arrest of a Russian deputy defense minister. Then the head of the ministry’s personnel department was put on trial. This week, two more senior military officials were arrested. All are accused of corruption, which they deny.

The arrests began shortly before President Vladimir Putin began his fifth term in office and transferred his ally, longtime Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, to a new post.

They immediately raised the question of whether Putin wanted to regain control of the Defense Ministry in the midst of the war in Ukraine, whether a dispute over competence had broken out between the military and the security services, or whether a different scenario was playing out behind the walls of the Kremlin.

A look at the background and reasons for the arrests:

HOW SERIOUS IS CORRUPTION IN RUSSIA?

Corruption scandals are nothing new, and for decades civil servants and top officials have been accused of profiting from their offices.

Corruption in Russia serves both a carrot and a stick function. It is a way to “encourage loyalty and push people to be on the same side” and also a method of control, says Sam Greene, director of Democratic Resilience at the Center for European Policy Analysis.

Putin wants everyone to have “a skeleton in the closet,” security expert Mark Galeotti said in a recent podcast. If the state has compromising material on key officials, it can cherry-pick the ones it wants to target, he added.

Corruption “is the essence of the system,” says Nigel Gould-Davies, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

The war in Ukraine has led to rising defense spending, thereby increasing opportunities for corruption.

WHO WAS ARRESTED?

Former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov – the first official arrested in April and the highest-ranking so far – oversaw major military-related construction projects and wielded vast sums of money, including the reconstruction of the devastated Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

The team, led by the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, claimed that Ivanov, 48, and his family owned luxury real estate and continued to celebrate lavish parties and trips abroad even after the invasion. They also claimed that Ivanov’s wife Svetlana divorced him in 2022 to avoid sanctions and continue living in luxury.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that the recent arrests were not a “campaign” against corruption, but rather reflected ongoing activities in “all government agencies.”

Peskov and Ivanov were once part of an embarrassing episode caught on camera. Navalny’s team released images from 2022 showing the Kremlin spokesman at a birthday party for Ivanov’s ex-wife. In the video, Peskov can be seen with Ivanov by his side, wearing a watch estimated to be worth $85,000.

In April, the Investigative Committee, Russia’s top law enforcement agency, reported that Ivanov was suspected of accepting a particularly large bribe, a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Since then, other people have been arrested on bribery charges. Among them were Lieutenant General Yury Kuznetsov, head of the Defense Ministry’s personnel directorate, Major General Ivan Popov, a career soldier and former commander-in-chief in Ukraine, and Lieutenant General Vadim Shamarin, deputy chief of the military General Staff. Shamarin is deputy to Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff.

A fifth ministry official was arrested on Thursday – Vladimir Verteletsky from the defense procurement department. He is accused of abuse of office that led to losses of more than 70 million rubles (about $776,000), the Investigative Committee said.

In addition, the deputy head of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Moscow Region, Vladimir Telayev, was arrested on Thursday on charges of large-scale bribery, Russian reports said.

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING NOW?

The arrests indicate that “truly egregious” corruption in the Defense Ministry will no longer be tolerated, said Richard Connolly, an expert on the Russian economy at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

Shortly after taking office, Putin replaced Shoigu as defense minister with economist Andrei Belousov. Peskov said Russia’s rising defense budget must fit into the overall economy.

Peskov said Russia’s defense budget was 6.7 percent of gross domestic product, a level not seen since Soviet times.

“There is a feeling that this money needs to be spent more wisely,” Connolly said.

Before his death in a still-mysterious plane crash last year, mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin led a brief rebellion against the country’s military leadership, accusing it of mismanaging the war and denying his troops weapons and ammunition.

Belousov’s appointment was “a reluctant admission by the Kremlin” that it needed to pay attention to these problems, Gould-Davies said.

It is also important that the war is fought properly because Russia’s economy depends on it. Russians are earning more money thanks to the booming defense sector. While this has caused inflation problems, it allows Putin to keep his promises to improve living standards.

Greene said the government must “keep the war going to keep the economy going,” but also ensure that the costs – and corruption – are not higher than necessary.

Connolly said it was also possible that the new Defense Minister Belousov wanted to break away from his predecessor’s staff and send the message that “things are done differently.”

Other changes include Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Sadovenko, who was replaced by Oleg Saveliev, a former Belousov aide, and former Shoigu spokeswoman Rossiyana Markovskaya, who announced she would take a new job.

Popov’s case may be different. He fought in Ukraine and was suspended in July 2023 because, like Prigozhin, he criticized the Defense Ministry leadership, blaming it for a lack of weapons and poor supply routes that led to many Russian casualties.

He may now have to fear the consequences of his criticism.

COULD THIS BE A TURF FIGHT?

It is unclear whether the Kremlin or the Russian secret services, in particular the state security service FSB, are the driving force behind the arrests.

It is also possible that politicians with sufficient distance from Putin became involved in a turf war that had nothing to do with the appointment of the new defense minister.

The security services, Greene said, could try to “push back” the military’s dominance that has been observed since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

While the Kremlin denies that any kind of purge is taking place, “if Putin hadn’t wanted it, it wouldn’t be happening,” Greene said.

The war in Ukraine turning in Russia’s favor could encourage Putin to sideline the Defense Ministry – or he could allow the security services to assert their dominance.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?

There are likely to be more arrests because the new defense minister wants to show that corruption “has a price” in order to curb it, Connolly said.

Greene added that it is also possible that “entrepreneurial-minded” investigators see the opening of a criminal case against a general as a great opportunity for career advancement.

However, because corruption is so widespread, it could cause panic throughout the system.

Arresting officers for behavior that was previously permitted even though it was illegal could lead to a shift in “red lines,” Greene said.

If the arrests continue or expand beyond the Defense Ministry, it could lead to culprits and officials “storming and storming the exits,” he said, something the Kremlin wants to avoid.

Because the system is built on corruption, attacking it too harshly could lead to its “falling apart,” Greene said.

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This article has been corrected to show that the arrests began shortly before, not after, Putin’s fifth term began.

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