Russian milbloggers have reported on that Vladimir Verteletsky, a senior defense ministry official in charge of procurement for Russia’s armed forces was arrested on suspicion of “accepting a bribe on an especially large scale.” He was arrested after law enforcement officers raided his office in the main building of the Ministry of Defense on Frunzenskaya Embankment in Moscow.
One blogger Yuri Kotenok said on his Telegram channel that, according to investigators, Verteletsky had received a car and a house, from an entrepreneur bidding on state defense orders, and registered the property in the name of his relatives. He then said that “Verteletsky was taken away in a ‘funnel’.”
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This follows just hours after Lieutenant-General Vadim Shamarin, head of the army’s Main Communications Directorate and Deputy Chief of the General Staff, became the fourth senior defense figure arrested for accepting bribes in the past month.
The arrests are seen as a purge of many of those appointed under the 12-year watch of former Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu.
Earlier this month, Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, one of Shoigu’s closest associates, known by many as “Shoigu’s Wallet.” Before that, the head of the main personnel department of the Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant General Yuri Kuznetsov, was detained and arrested, as was Major General Ivan Popov, former commander of the 58th Army of the Russian Armed Forces. All are charged with bribery, corruption or fraud.
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According to unnamed sources speaking to the Financial Times, the purge of these senior military officers has been personally ordered by President Vladimir Putin, who is intent on weakening the political base that Shoigu developed over the years and whose position was strengthened after the death of, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner PMC.
Others see it as also being intended to underline the bona fides of Andrei Belousov, Shoigu’s replacement as Minister of Defense, who has been charged with getting the defense forces’ finances under control.
Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, denied on Thursday that the arrests were part of a targeted purge of senior military officials saying:
"The fight against corruption is an ongoing effort. It is not a campaign. It is an integral part of the activities of law enforcement agencies.”
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