Russian corruption purge expands as two more defence officials arrested

Confessing to taking bribes, the duo are the latest to be arrested in a ‘purge’ by the Defence Ministry.

Russia has charged two military officials with taking bribes, the latest in a string of arrests linked to alleged corruption in the Ministry of Defence.

The Investigative Committee announced on Monday that the pair had confessed to accepting bribes equivalent to $120,000 over the past three years. Amid the military offensive in Ukraine, since April, Moscow has arrested at least a dozen military officials on corruption charges in what has been termed a purge by analysts.

Ivan Populovsky, the head of a military representative’s office, and his subordinate, Grigory Zorin, are the latest officials to be arrested. Investigators alleged that the pair took bribes from two companies that supplied electrical goods and cables to the ministry.

In return, the men were expected to weaken oversight and give “other privileges and preferences” to the companies when carrying out state contracts.

“During the investigation, the defendants pleaded guilty,” investigators said, adding that their involvement in other similar crimes “is being looked into”.

The Defence Ministry has been facing corruption allegations since the Soviet era. But the problem came under intense scrutiny following the Russian offensive in Ukraine.

Last week, four Russian officials, including one who worked at the ministry, were arrested in separate corruption cases.

Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov, a close associate of former Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, is the highest-ranking casualty of the purge thus far, having been arrested on bribery charges in April.

Lieutenant-General Vadim Shamarin, deputy head of the army’s general staff, was arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes in May.

The same month, President Vladimir Putin removed the long-serving Shoigu.

He was replaced by economist Andrei Belousov in what was widely seen as a move to ensure tighter management of the country’s vast defence budget.

Shoigu has been widely blamed for Russia’s failure to capture Kyiv. He was also accused of incompetence and corruption by Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the mercenary Wagner Group, who died in a plane crash last year following a failed revolt.

All of those under investigation served under Shoigu, who now serves as secretary of Putin’s Security Council.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies