A Russian military court has sentenced Maj. Gen. Denis Putilov, the former head of the Central Military District’s armored vehicle service, to 8.5 years in a maximum-security penal colony after finding him guilty of accepting a large bribe linked to a state defense contract.
The 46-year-old officer was also stripped of his rank and barred from holding senior government positions for six years after his release, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
Prosecutors said that between 2023 and 2024, the Defense Ministry signed contracts worth more than 140 million rubles ($1.76 million) with a private contractor, identified as an entrepreneur named Chudinov, to repair and service military vehicles.
As the official overseeing the contracts, General Putilov allegedly accepted a 10-million-ruble ($126,000) bribe from Chudinov in exchange for “general patronage.”
Investigators said the contracts were never fulfilled, causing significant losses to the state.
Putilov’s defense has said it will appeal the verdict to the First Western District Military Court.
His arrest in September 2024 came just four months after President Vladimir Putin promoted him to major general.
Putilov is at least the eighth high-ranking officer to be targeted in a sweeping anti-corruption campaign that has reshaped Russia’s military leadership since the ouster of longtime Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu last year.
The campaign has ensnared several prominent generals, including Dmitry Bulgakov, a former deputy defense minister accused of causing 1.3 billion rubles ($16.38 million) in damages; Pavel Popov, another former deputy accused of embezzlement tied to construction at the Patriot park; and Yury Kuznetsov, the Defense Ministry’s former head of personnel, charged with taking an 80-million-ruble ($1.01 million) bribe.
Others arrested include Maj. Gen. Valery Mumindzhanov, deputy commander of the Leningrad Military District for logistics, and Lt. Gen. Vadim Shamarin, deputy chief of the General Staff, who was sentenced to seven years in prison in April 2025.
In a related case, Vladimir Shesterov, a former deputy head of the ministry’s innovation development directorate and an associate of Popov, was sentenced to six years.
And Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov, former commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army, received a five-year sentence for allegedly stealing metal intended for fortifications in the frontline Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine.
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