Russian deputy chief of General Staff arrested in military corruption probe

MOSCOW: The deputy head of the Russian army’s General Staff has been accused of taking bribes and arrested, investigators said on Thursday, the latest in a slew of high-profile cases of alleged corruption to shake the military’s top brass.

The arrest of Lieutenant-General Vadim Shamarin is the fourth detention of a high-ranking defence figure within a month, starting on April 23 when Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov was placed in pre-trial detention for suspected bribe-taking.

Since then, Lieutenant-General Yuri Kuznetsov, head of personnel at the defence ministry, and Major-General Ivan Popov, former commander of Russia’s 58th army, have also been arrested.

Shamarin is accused of taking bribes between 2016 and 2023 from a factory in the Ural mountains that produces communications equipment, as a reward for placing bigger state contracts with it, Russia’s Investigative Committee said. It said he had benefited to the tune of at least 36 million roubles ($400,000).