A top Russian general was convicted of bribery and embezzlement and jailed on Tuesday, state news media reported, in one of the highest-profile cases from a monthslong Kremlin campaign to root out military corruption amid the war in Ukraine.
Timur Ivanov, a general and longtime deputy defense minister who oversaw military construction projects, was detained in April 2024 on charges of taking a “large-scale” bribe — the first in a string of arrests of senior officers. Mr. Ivanov, who was known as a protégé of Sergei K. Shoigu, the former Russian defense minister and a close associate of President Vladimir V. Putin, had pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
The arrest of Mr. Ivanov, and other defense officials after him, signaled a turning point in the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. Coming at a moment of rising war costs and increasing criticism from supporters of the war over the distribution of frontline resources, the moves were seen as an effort by Mr. Putin to improve the management of the war effort.
In delivering the verdict on Tuesday at Moscow City Court, Judge Sergei Podoprigorov sentenced Mr. Ivanov to 13 years in a penal colony and a nearly $1.3 million fine, according to the Russian state news agency Tass. It reported that Mr. Ivanov’s attorneys said they planned to appeal.
Details of the indictment had been scarce, since the judge closed the trial to the public, saying classified information could be revealed during the proceedings. But in his final statement, TASS reported earlier, Mr. Ivanov insisted that he had “absolutely nothing to do” with the accusations leveled against him.
Mr. Ivanov, who served as a deputy defense minister starting in 2016, had long been in charge of military construction projects, including huge contracts awarded to rebuild the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine, which was devastated by Russian attacks soon after the February 2022 invasion. He was also responsible for building Patriot Park, a military theme park outside Moscow that sought to cast the experiences of the Russian armed forces in a holy light, and was awarded the Order for Merit to the Fatherland several times.
Before his arrest, Mr. Ivanov had attracted the attention of Aleksei A. Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation for his and his wife’s conspicuously lavish lifestyle, including yacht rentals on the French Riviera. He also was placed under U.S. sanctions in 2022 for his role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mr. Ivanov’s detention in April last year marked the beginning of a monthslong purge of high-ranking defense ministry officials and generals, all charged with bribery and misappropriation of funds. Mr. Putin also unexpectedly removed Mr. Shoigu, his long-serving defense minister, and replaced him with a member of his economic team.
The moves were taken by many as a sign that Mr. Putin was determined to put the Kremlin’s war effort on more economically sustainable footing after more than two years of fighting — and to show that Russia had the discipline and capacity to wage a long conflict.
A number of those swept up in the campaign have been convicted. Lt. Gen. Vadim Shamarin, former deputy chief of Russia’s General Staff, was sentenced in April to seven years in a maximum-security prison for taking bribes. A week later, a Russian military court sentenced Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov, a former top commander in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to five years in a penal colony for fraud and stripped him of his rank.
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