One of the most important Russian deputy ministers of defense, Timur Ivanov (48), has been arrested in Moscow. Ivanov manages an important portfolio: all defense real estate, and he is being prosecuted on suspicion of taking a large bribe. The investigation is still ongoing, but the article of law under which he was allegedly arrested concerns a bribe of more than one million rubles (the equivalent of more than 10,000 euros). The maximum penalty: fifteen years in prison.
Twenty-four hours before his arrest, he sat next to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in a press conference. The next day he sat in the defendant’s cage of the Moscow court in the same army uniform. Ivanov’s arrest is a cause for concern because it is the first time since the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine that such a high-ranking Russian has been officially linked to corruption.
Journalists and researchers have previously noted that Ivanov was probably ‘eating’. Ivanov’s formal salary amounts to around 140,000 euros per year. The anti-corruption organization FBK of the late Alexei Navalny revealed at the end of 2022 a European holiday of the Ivanov family that had cost more than a million euros. The villas and yachts, clothing and other personal expenses were paid for by the company that is involved in the reconstruction of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, destroyed by Russia.
Rolls Royce
Ivanov had been serving as Deputy Minister of Defense since 2016. As deputy minister, he led all defense-related construction and renovation projects, as well as military mortgages (a scheme that allows defense personnel to buy a house at lower interest rates). In addition, he was responsible for housing and medical support of the Russian armed forces. This commitment to the Russian military apparatus prompted the European Union and the US to place it on the sanctions list in 2022.
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The Ivanovs spent 178,000 euros on a birthday party in Istanbul, according to FBK. They also bought a Rolls Royce worth 120,000 euros, which was refurbished for more than half that amount. Many of the receipts for his wife Svetlana’s purchases, such as jewelry, were paid from companies under the Russian Ministry of Defense, according to investigators.
It is not known whether these revelations from the team of Aleksej Navany, who died under suspicious circumstances in a penal colony, contributed to the prosecutor’s decision. Construction and infrastructure are traditionally branches of government that are sensitive to corruption, bribery and skimming of public money. In 2019, Ivanov was included in the Forbes list of richest Russian employees of the state security apparatus.
‘High treason’
Why Ivanov’s excesses are now suddenly causing him to be prosecuted leads to speculation among specialists. One of the possible explanations is that the establishment wants to send a signal.
Vladimir Putin has approved a military budget of 36.6 trillion rubles, about 377 billion euros, for 2024. Independent journalists including Farida Rustamova estimate that more than 30 percent of Russia’s budget is allocated to defense. Now that more money than ever before is flowing into defense due to the war, there is also more to steal than ever before.
The Russian independent medium iStories thinks there is more going on. Based on two different sources in the state security service, it reports that Ivanov is not only corrupt, but is suspected of high treason behind the scenes.
“No one would have arrested him for corruption. Everyone there [in het Kremlin] knew about this for a long time,” iStories quotes one of the sources. “Putin gave the order after convincing us that this was precisely a matter of treason,” the other source said. It is not yet convincing: in Russia, which is becoming increasingly authoritarian, the net of the state can close around anyone at any time, and corruption with defense funds in itself can therefore be considered treason.
According to Russian journalist Pyotr Kozlov, the high-profile arrest signals a redistribution of power within the Kremlin ahead of Putin’s fifth term in office. Putin will be inaugurated again on May 7.
Weakened Shoigu’s position
Ivanov has been a state official since 2012 from the entourage of current Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who was then governor of Moscow. When Shoigu was promoted to Minister of Defense that same year, he took Ivanov with him and he became head of the Defense company Oboronstroj (a combination of the words for defense and construction). In 2016, Ivanov became deputy minister. Deputy minister with supervision over construction and military contracts is one of the “biggest and tastiest” positions, Kozlov quotes an anonymous senior government official.
The fact that a confidant of Shoigu is now taking the hit would indicate a weakened position of the defense minister. “Putin never lets one group become too strong. And sells this to the people as a fight against corruption,” quotes Kozlov.
Ivanov could also be used as Putin’s pawn in his project to shape the new power structure. “Ivanov is now going to testify against everyone,” says expert on Russian security services, Alexei Soldatov. “This is usually a form of control, not repression. This is how the Kremlin regime solves the task of maintaining manageability.”
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