A Russian court jailed ex-deputy defence minister Timur Ivanov for 13 years on corruption charges on Tuesday, part of a sweeping crackdown on military leaders during Moscow’s Ukraine offensive.
Russia has prosecuted more than a dozen military officials and defence sector workers since last year, targeting senior figures accused of stealing vast amounts of money allocated for major army projects.
Ivanov, 49, oversaw construction projects for Russia’s military and was found guilty of embezzling funds, an AFP journalist in the court reported.
He stood in dark clothes in a metal cage in the court room, smiling as the judge said he had decided to “to sentence Ivanov to 13 years imprisonment in a general regime colony and impose a fine of 100 million rubles ($1.27 million)”.
He was found guilty of stealing 3.2 billion rubles ($41 million) from the Moscow-based Intercommerz bank, which collapsed in 2016, and over 200 million rubles in the procurement two ferries to serve Russian-annexed Crimea.
Speaking to reporters outside the court after the sentence, Ivanov’s lawyer denounced the proceedings as a “show trial”.
One of his former aides, Anton Filatov, was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison.
‘Glamourous general’
Russian media have dubbed Ivanov “the glamorous general” for his lavish lifestyle.
His family assets, which Russia froze, include 23 luxury and vintage cars, the TASS news agency reported, citing court documents.
During the investigation, law enforcement officers seized a 2,500-square-metre (27,000-square-foot) mansion, a 420-square-metre bathhouse and a 20-acre (97,000-square-yard) plot of land, RIA Novosti reported.
Lawyer Murad Musayev said: “Rumours of Ivanov’s multi-billion-dollar wealth are greatly exaggerated.”
Russia’s government and military establishment have faced accusations of widespread corruption for years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has publicly mounted anti-graft campaigns during his 25-year rule.
But critics allege rare high-profile arrests are normally politically motivated or the result of elite infighting, not genuine attempts to root out corruption.
Ivanov was arrested in April 2024 amid a wider crackdown on generals and military leaders suspected of corruption, as part of a massive shake-up of the army leadership.
He is widely seen as having links to Sergei Shoigu, a former defence minister who Putin also sacked last year.
Hawkish politicians and bloggers had lambasted Shoigu over Russia’s failure to deliver a decisive victory over Ukraine, despite Moscow’s superior manpower and weapons.
The Anti-Corruption Foundation — an investigative outlet created by late opposition leader Alexei Navalny — alleged in 2022 that Ivanov had profited from construction projects in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.
Moscow captured the city after a weeks-long siege at the start of the conflict in 2022.
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