Associated Press – A Russian military official arrested on bribery charges was sent to pretrial detention after appearing in a central Moscow court on Wednesday, court officials said in a statement.
Timur Ivanov, 48, one of Russia’s 12 deputy defense ministers, was arrested on Tuesday night, the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement. They did not reveal any further information, other than to specify that Mr. Ivanov was suspected of receiving a particularly large bribe. This bribery is a criminal offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Investigators told Moscow’s Basmany court on Wednesday that Ivanov received bribes in the form of unspecified real estate services “during contracting and subcontracting of work in response to the needs of the Ministry of Defense,” according to a statement from the court. He said he conspired with a third party.
In this pool photo distributed by Russian state news agency Sputnik, Russian President Vladimir Putin (centre), Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (right), and Deputy Defense Minister of the Russian Federation Timur Ivanov (left) are seen in the Military Patriotic Park in Kubinka. is visiting. September 19, 2018, on the outskirts of Moscow. The Russian Investigative Committee announced on April 23, 2024 that Russian law enforcement agencies have detained Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov on suspicion of bribery. (Photo by ALEXEY NIKOLSKIY/POOL/AFP) / **Editor’s note: This image is distributed by Russian state news agency Sputnik ** (Photo by: ALEXEY NIKOLSKIY/POOL/AFP, Getty Images)
Court officials said in a separate statement that Sergei Borodin, an acquaintance of Mr. Ivanov, was also arrested and ordered to pretrial detention on the same charges. Both men will be detained until at least June 23.
Ivanov was appointed to the post by presidential decree in 2016, according to the Ministry of Defense website. He oversaw property management, military housing and medical support, and facility construction and reconstruction.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that both President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had been informed of Ivanov’s arrest. This comes as Moscow’s war in Ukraine enters its third year.
Before his arrest on Tuesday evening, Ivanov was seen attending a meeting with Shoigu and other military leaders.
Russian media reported that he was responsible for parts of Mariupol’s construction. Mariupol is a port city in a partially occupied region of Ukraine that was heavily shelled and occupied by Russian forces early in the 2022 war.
In summer 2022, Russia’s official military TV station Zvezda reported that the ministry was “building an entire residential area” in the severely damaged city, and showed Ivanov touring the construction site.
That same year, the team of the late Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader and anti-corruption campaigner, claimed that Ivanov and his family lived a lavish lifestyle with lavish overseas trips, lavish parties and elite real estate. insisted. Opposition activists also claimed that Ivanov’s wife, Svetlana, divorced him in the summer of 2022 and continued to evade sanctions and enjoy a lavish lifestyle.
“Today is a good day,” Navalny’s ally Maria Pevchiv said on X (formerly Twitter) about Ivanov’s detention on Tuesday.
