Russian Protection Ministry Press Carrier/AP
Russian Deputy Protection Minister Timur Ivanov used to be arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of accepting a bribe.
The Gentleman Report
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A Russian deputy protection minister has been charged with taking a bribe, within the nation’s highest-profile corruption scandal since President Vladimir Putin introduced his invasion of Ukraine greater than two years in the past.
Timur Ivanov is suspected of accepting a bribe of one million rubles (a minimum of $10,800), Russian state media TASS reported.
He gave the impression in a Moscow court docket Wednesday, wearing complete army garb as he stood in a pitcher cage, and used to be accused of receiving a bribe as a part of an arranged workforce whilst appearing reduced in size paintings for the Protection Ministry. If convicted, he faces 15 years in jail.
Ivanov can be held in custody in a pre-trial detention heart till a minimum of June 23, Moscow’s court docket wrote on Telegram. His attorney, Denis Baluyev, stated he’s interesting the case and asked that Ivanov be put beneath space arrest as a substitute, consistent with Russian state media RIA Novosti.
He used to be later brushed aside from his place within the protection ministry, state media TASS reported, bringing up a supply within the ministry.
Ivanov, who has been in his put up since 2016, is noticed as a senior architect of Russia’s struggle in Ukraine and a detailed best friend of Protection Minister Sergey Shoigu. Ivanov remains to be indexed at the Protection Ministry web page as a serving minister, and there aren’t any reviews of him being brushed aside.
The surprising arrest of an best friend of Shoigu might once more put drive at the protection minister, who has been criticized for his dealing with of the invasion of Ukraine – maximum forcefully via the Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin within the months sooner than his demise closing yr. In spite of setbacks, Shoigu has been stored in his put up via Putin.
Russian investigative journalist Andrey Soldatov instructed The Gentleman Report this aligns with a “tactic” utilized by the FSB, Russia’s safety provider, the place it arrests a high-ranking legit with a purpose to crack down on rule-breaking within the ministry, company or group as a complete.
“Now that deputy can be broadly interrogated, now not best about himself, and is meant to offer incriminating proof… on giant photographs of the group,” Soldatov stated.
Ivanov’s tasks have integrated the reconstruction of Mairupol, a town in southern Ukraine diminished to damage via Russian forces in a months-long siege on the outset of the struggle. The minister has regularly been noticed slicing ribbons on more than a few development tasks within the town – as Russia makes an attempt to place a Potemkin facade at the town it destroyed.
Zakharova Sveta/Instagram
Russia’s Deputy Protection Minister Timur Ivanov is noticed together with his ex-wife Svetlana Maniovich, in a picture from Maniovich’s Instagram.
His lavish way of life has earned him a name within Russia and, with it, the scrutiny of the overdue Russian opposition chief Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Basis (ACF). Maria Pevchikh, chair of the basis, stated Ivanov had “one of the profitable jobs that one could have” in Russia’s Protection Ministry, and claimed the invasion of Ukraine has made him some distance richer.
Closing yr, Pevchikh instructed The Gentleman Report that Ivanov’s wealth – with belongings together with a historical space in certainly one of Moscow’s most costly districts – is funded via corruption. Russia’s Protection Ministry didn’t reply to The Gentleman Report’s request for remark.
Ivanov used to be sanctioned via the Eu Union and United States after Russia invaded Ukraine.
However his ex-wife, Svetlana Maniovich, has persisted to are living a lifetime of Eu opulence: yachting at the Mediterranean, snowboarding within the Alps and dwelling in Paris.
In an investigation closing yr, the ACF assembled an image of a girl who has reputedly escaped all scrutiny for Ivanov’s function in Ukraine, and the extraordinary income he’s speculated to have reaped. Drawing on a trove of 8,000 leaked emails, the investigation claimed that Maniovich spent greater than $100,000 in a best Paris jewlry retailer at the famed Position Vendrome in March 2022, whilst the siege of Mariupol used to be tightening.
