According to TASS news agency, Russia Today and other media reports, the Russian Investigative Committee said on April 23 that Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was detained on suspicion of accepting bribes. Why was Ivanov, 48, one of Russia's 12 deputy defense ministers, arrested?
Suspected of accepting bribes of at least 1 million rubles faces up to 15 years in prison
The Russian Investigative Committee said Ivanov was detained on suspicion of violating Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on bribery, but did not disclose further details.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had been informed of the detention of the deputy defense minister.
According to TASS, Ivanov may be suspected of accepting bribes of at least 1 million rubles (about 78,000 yuan) and will face up to 15 years in prison.
According to the report, Russia has been strengthening its anti-corruption efforts recently, and since 2008, the anti-corruption legal system and system have been gradually improved. Putin has also declared that "there are no untouchable officials". In 2016, a number of governors, mayors and law enforcement officials in Russia were arrested, including "tigers" like the President of the Komi Republic, who had embezzled state-owned assets for many years, and "flies" like the acting director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau.
Responsible for the construction of military facilities, "responsible for the most oil and water work of the Ministry of Defense"
Agence France-Presse reported that Ivanov, 48, is one of Russia's 12 deputy defense ministers, the top official in charge of the construction of military facilities in Russia, who is currently under sanctions from the European Union and the United States.
In 1997, Ivanov graduated from the Department of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University. Over the next two years, he worked for a number of commercial organizations. From 1999 to 2012, he worked in the Russian energy industry. In 2012, Ivanov entered politics and served as deputy governor of the Moscow region under the then governor of the region, Sergei Shoigu.
Ivanov was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia in May 2016 and is responsible for the management of the Russian Armed Forces' property, garrison, housing and medical support. Ivanov is responsible for engineering studies, architectural and structural design, construction, reconstruction and overhaul of facilities of the Ministry of Defense. In addition, he was responsible for the reconstruction of the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
The American magazine Forbes once named Ivanov "one of the richest people" in the Russian security forces. The Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), set up by Russian opposition leader Navalny, targeted Ivanov in December 2022 for receiving benefits from the Mariupol reconstruction project.
According to the head of the ACF investigation, Maria Pevchikh, "He holds the most oily job in the Ministry of Defense." He is in charge of the construction plate, and it can be said that every construction site of the Russian troops is his territory. ”
The US media said that he took bribes through close friends to earn millions of dollars in the reconstruction of Mariupol
The American media "Insider" has launched an investigative report that Russian Deputy Defense Minister Ivanov earned millions of dollars in the reconstruction of the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
The city of Mariupol was once an important industrial city in Donetsk, but it was badly damaged during the war. Russian troops quickly moved in after the battle of Mariupol and began reconstruction work. In addition to repairing military installations, they have also helped the local population rebuild a large number of ordinary homes. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Ivanov is in charge of the reconstruction of Mariupol.
An anonymous source named "Ch" told reporters that he had been in close contact with Ivanov for more than a decade. According to his description, Ivanov has a close friend who is a former Russian senator Avanesov, who is also his financial owner. The former senator still has billions of rubles in debt outstanding to this day, but when government officials launched the investigation process against his 6.5 billion rubles, they did not find any of his property, which Ivanov operated behind the scenes. In fact, Ivanov owned several residences in Moscow and other places, all of which were registered in the names of his wife and relatives.
According to the report, Avanesov was the intermediary between Ivanov and the contractor of the Ministry of Defense project, and he introduced Ivanov to private contractors, and Ivanov also accepted bribes and kickbacks through him.
"All construction contractors give kickbacks, the allocation of 500 million rubles is only 80 million rubles to contractors"
Sergei Harabrikh, a former Russian military contractor, signed a construction contract with the Ministry of Defense for 15 years. He said all construction contractors in the Ministry of Defense had done their "homework." "Homework" is a euphemism for kickbacks.
In 2019, Halabrich, who was under criminal investigation for fraud, fled Russia for France, where he applied for political asylum. "Avanesov personally promised in the reception room that the new defense contract would be for my company," he said. Soon my company was assigned to improve the construction of the Kantemirovka Guards Tank Division in anticipation of the arrival of observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in September 2016. The government allocated 500 million rubles, but in reality only 80 million rubles were delivered to contractors. After that, we started receiving orders on a regular basis. By the end of 2016, we were executing close to 2.5 billion rubles of contracts for the Ministry of Defense. ”
According to Harabrich, the contract of the Kantemirov tank division is just one example of the Ministry of Defense receiving kickbacks, which often go to the affiliate of businessman Sergei Volkodov, whose brother Yuri Volkoduff works for and has close ties to Ivanov. Later, the Volkoduff brothers were arrested for embezzlement of government funds during the construction of the Vostok cosmodrome.
"The contractor pays for the construction of a luxury house, and the contractor pays for the wife's luxurious life"
According to Herabrich, in general, war is a golden age for military contractors. The Ministry of Defense has already spent tens of billions of rubles on reconstruction work in Mariupol, but contractors have been slow to make progress.
Investigative reports indicate that Ivanov earned millions of dollars in the reconstruction of Mariupol. Ivanov personally lobbied for a private contractor, Olimpsitstroy, to be responsible for reconstruction works such as the construction of a new apartment building in Mariupol.
In 2022, the team of the late Russian opposition leader Navalny discovered properties owned by Ivanov in the Moscow region and the Tver region. According to the investigation, the cost of their construction and repair was paid for by the Ministry of Defense contractor Olimpsitstroy, and the Ivano couple's luxury life in Europe was also paid for by the contractor.
According to the investigative report, Ivanov's wife, Svetlana, has enjoyed a luxurious life in Europe for many years, vacationing in Saint-Tropez, driving a Rolls-Royce car and wearing fine jewelry. The bills are borne by other people or companies, including Olimpsitistroy, a Ministry of Defense contractor involved in the construction of the new apartment building in Mariupol.
In order to avoid EU sanctions, he divorced his wife after the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Another friend of Ivanov's revealed that Ivanov had thrown his phone at a hotel in Dubai so that no one would "catch him", and then he secretly flew to the Maldives with his wife Svetlana for a vacation. He also described Ivanov as a "pro-Western man" who was madly in love with a woman who "could not imagine her life outside the Western world."
Svetlana married Ivanov in 2009 after divorcing her first husband. After the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, she moved to France, where she continued to enjoy a life of luxury.
The European Union imposed sanctions on Ivanov, saying he was the top official in charge of the construction of military facilities in the Ministry of Defense. In order to circumvent EU sanctions, Ivanov and his wife divorced in June 2022, but Ivanov remains her only source of financial support, and the two have not divided their property. However, Ukrainska Pravda confirmed that she continued to spend her "ex-husband's" money even after her divorce.
According to the report, because Svetlana obtained an Israeli passport through her first husband and evaded EU sanctions through a fake divorce from Ivanov, she was able to enjoy a luxurious life in France freely. She often flaunts her lavish lifestyle all over Europe, and her fashion lover not only frequents various luxury jewelry stores, but also often wears jewelry worth hundreds of thousands of euros when she goes out. She rented a villa in Saint-Tropez, Paris, for a monthly rent of up to 150,000 euros. Svetlana's extravagant life in Europe has caused controversy, and some critics have even suggested her deportation.
Huashang Daily Gale News reporter Guo Ji compiled and edited Dong Lin