The arrest of Deputy Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, is seen as one of the most high-profile cases of military corruption since Russia invaded Ukraine more than two years ago.
Dubbed “one of the wealthiest siloviki” (Russian for prominent politician or government official who has built a career in the military, police or security services), 48-year-old Timur Ivanov has been the subject of Russian media investigations into his lavish lifestyle, as well as his family’s it says The Moscow times.
Ivanov is also considered a close ally of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, sparking debate about possible purges within the Kremlin elite.
Who is Timur Ivanov?
A graduate of Moscow State University who worked in Russia’s nuclear power industry in the early 2000s, Ivanov was Shoigu’s deputy and while governor of the Moscow Region in 2012.
After Shoigu was appointed Minister of Defense at the end of 2012, Ivanov was appointed General Director of the construction company Oboronstroy of the Ministry of Defense in 2013.
Three years later, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense.
According to investigative newspaper Dosier, Ivanov gained Shoigu’s favor because he allegedly paid for media publications that boosted his public image.
“It is hard to find an official who has done more for Shoigu than Ivanov,” the Guardian quoted an unnamed former colleague of Ivanov after news of his arrest, characterizing the nature of their relationship.
In 2018, Forbes Russia ranked Ivanov among the richest members of the country’s military and police elite, estimating his family’s net worth at 136.7 million rubles ($1.5 million).
Ivanov has been under US and EU sanctions since 2022, when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
The EU sanctioned Ivanov as the highest official of the Ministry of Defense in charge of the construction of military facilities.
Ivanov oversaw construction, housing, property management, mortgages and procurement for the Armed Forces.
As part of his role, Ivanov was responsible for implementing the construction of the Ministry of Defense’s Patriotic Park, which opened in 2016, as well as the Main Cathedral of the Armed Forces of Russia located on the park’s territory, which was consecrated in 2020.
Ivanov was associated with the Russian reconstruction of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which Russian forces captured after a devastating months-long siege.
Activists say the huge sums invested in the Ukrainian offensive have given officials new opportunities to enrich themselves through covert procurement deals.
Several independent Russian media reported that Ivanov and his family had amassed a huge fortune with the help of bribes on contracts he secured at the Ministry.
In December 2022, the investigative team of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny said it had obtained thousands of leaked emails from Ivanov’s wife, Svetlana Maniovic, which showed a lavish lifestyle far beyond what his official salary could cover.
They said she spent hundreds of thousands of euros on luxury cars, jewellery, clothes, parties and renting prime properties and yachts in the south of France.
Some of the transactions were allegedly routed through third parties, including Defense Ministry contractors, it said, adding that Ivanov divorced his wife to enable her to circumvent EU sanctions.
Navalny and Dosier’s team claimed that Ivanov profited from construction projects in Mariupol.
Ivanov faces a sentence of up to 15 years in prison for accepting bribes on a large scale.
It was not immediately clear why law enforcement would target one of the top officials closely associated with Shoigu, who is himself considered a close Putin ally.
“This is a serious blow to Shoigu, especially on the eve of Putin’s inauguration” (May 7), an anonymous former Defense Ministry official told the independent Viorstka newspaper.
The Basmana District Court in Moscow said investigators believe Ivanov was part of a “criminal conspiracy” to take “bribes on a particularly large scale in the form of property services, during contracting and subcontracting work for the Ministry of Defense.”
Ivanov denies the accusations against him.
The footage from the courtroom shows Ivanov, in a military uniform, standing in a glass cage in place of the accused and listening to the judge tell him that he will be placed in pre-trial detention until July 23.
Both state and independent media reported that Ivanov had been on the radar of Russian police since at least 2018.
On Wednesday, independent investigative news IStories cited two anonymous sources as claiming that Ivanov is also suspected of treason.
“No one would detain him for corruption.” The Kremlin knew about it a long time ago. “Putin gave the approval after being convinced of Ivanov’s alleged treason,” one source said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged journalists to rely only on official information while the investigation is ongoing, calling the IStories report “speculation.”
Peskov told reporters late Tuesday that both President Vladimir Putin and Shoigu had been informed of Ivanov’s arrest.
Analysts say the rare arrests of senior government figures are usually the result of political conflicts.
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