Less than 24 hours after privately blaming his defense minister for failures in the war against Ukraine, Vladimir Putin swiftly removed him from his position. Following this abrupt decision, another high-ranking official from the Defense Ministry was forcefully apprehended by masked security forces.
Counterintelligence agents reportedly arrived heavily armed to detain Lieutenant-General Yury Kuznetsov, the head of the Defense Ministry’s personnel department, on Monday. According to a press release by the Investigative Committee on Tuesday, Kuznetsov is currently in pre-trial detention facing charges of large-scale bribery.
The exact nature of the charges against him is largely unknown. According to investigators, during his tenure as head of the 8th Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces from 2021 to 2023, Kuznetsov allegedly accepted a bribe from commercial enterprises in exchange for carrying out specific actions in their favor.
Just a few weeks ago, Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was arrested on bribery charges, which dealt a significant blow to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
On Sunday, in a surprising turn of events, Putin replaced Shoigu, who has been replaced by civilian economist Andrei Belousov. The Kremlin has justified this decision by stating that the defense ministry of the country needs to be completely open to innovation, and Belousov is deemed suitable for this role.
According to unnamed sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg has reported that Putin’s decision to appoint Shoigu as the head of the Security Council should not be interpreted as a demotion. However, the Kremlin has insisted that this move is not a reflection of Putin losing faith in Shoigu’s capabilities to handle the war, despite corruption allegations within the Defense Ministry. The report also highlights the dramatic mutiny led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the boss of Wagner, as a potential reason for Shoigu’s dismissal.
After Kuznetsov’s arrest, the Kremlin media has portrayed it as an “anti-corruption purge” within the Defense Ministry, assigning Belousov the responsibility of resolving Shoigu’s predicament. Former Putin adviser Sergei Markov expressed his concerns about the situation, stating, “A significant amount of money has entered the Defense Ministry due to the war, leading to a doubled budget. However, the arrest of Timur Ivanov and the extent of corruption surpasses reasonable limits.” Markov shared these insights during an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda on Tuesday.
Shoigu’s legacy seems to have been solidified as one of wartime corruption and incompetence. Those who are tired of the prolonged war against Ukraine can now attribute it to rampant corruption within the military, rather than solely blaming the Kremlin.
Pro-war bloggers linked to Prigozhin were quick to celebrate the news of Kuznetsov’s arrest on Tuesday. It comes as no surprise, considering that Prigozhin had previously called for the removal of Shoigu and his associates during his failed uprising against the military. This incident occurred just a month before Prigozhin tragically died in a plane crash, which was widely believed to be an act of assassination.
“Kuznetsov and Ivanov are being thrown straight into the fire,” commented one of the Wagner-linked Telegram channels, referring to them as “sleazebags.”
