Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia arrested

Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was arrested for 2 months on suspicion of taking a bribe.

Timur Ivanov supervised construction projects under the Russian Ministry of Defense. In particular, under Ivanov’s control were construction contractors carrying out orders from the Russian Ministry of Defense for the restoration of houses in Russian-occupied Mariupol.

Timur Ivanov is included in the list of the richest officials in Russia according to Forbes.

The reason for Ivanov’s arrest was that the estimate for the construction of houses in Mariupol was exceeded by 3-4 times.

In one interview, a familiar official from the Moscow Government said the following:

[Officials] always stole and everyone knew about it. But before they stole in such a way that it did not affect the [production] process. Now they steal in such a way that it has an impact.

And that’s true. Timur Ivanov would not have come to the attention of the FSB, which has been investigating his activities over the past 5 years, if he had stolen less. A 10% kickback is a completely acceptable amount in order to not only not come to the attention of the fiscal authorities, but also a merit from the point of view of Putin’s government.

Ivanov failed to curb his appetite for corruption and received kickbacks of 100-200% of the cost of the object.

Now the official faces up to 15 years in prison.