Russian state prosecutors are seeking a nearly 15-year prison sentence for former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov on bribery and embezzlement charges, the Vedomosti business newspaper reported Monday.
Ivanov, 49, who oversaw military construction projects, was arrested in April 2024, part of what would later become a wider Kremlin crackdown on corruption within the Defense Ministry.
Referred to in the Russian media as the “glamorous general,” Ivanov is the most senior military official arrested since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He served as deputy minister from 2016 and was widely seen as an ally of former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who was dismissed last May and appointed secretary of Russia’s Security Council.
Ivanov and his associate, businessman Sergei Borodin, were initially accused of receiving 1.19 billion rubles ($15.1 million) in kickbacks for Defense Ministry contracts.
In October, prosecutors pressed additional charges, accusing Ivanov and his alleged accomplices of embezzling 4.1 billion rubles ($52.4 million) via foreign bank transfers, as well as 216 million rubles during the purchase of two ferries for the Kerch Strait line connecting southern Russia and occupied Crimea.
He is also accused of accepting more than 152 million rubles in bribes from Alexander Fomin, co-founder of the construction firm Olimpsitistroy. Ivanov denies the charges.
In addition, prosecutors are seeking a 14-year sentence for another alleged accomplice, Anton Filatov, former director of the Defense Ministry subsidiary Oboronlogistika.
The case, which has been held behind closed doors since March, is expected to conclude with a verdict in early July, according to Vedomosti.
In 2022, Ivanov was the subject of a high-profile investigation by the Anti-Corruption Foundation, founded by the late opposition activist Alexei Navalny, which alleged he personally profited from reconstruction work in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
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