Moscow Jails Ex-Deputy Defense Minister Over Corruption Charges

A Russian court has sentenced ex-Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov to 13 years in prison on corruption charges on Tuesday.

Ivanov, then serving as the deputy to ex-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, was arrested in April 2024 for reportedly taking a bribe of at least 1 million rubles ($10,800 at the time), during contracting and subcontracting works for the Defense Ministry.

Ivanov was found guilty of embezzling 3.2 billion rubles ($41 million) from the Moscow-based Intercommerz bank, which collapsed in 2016, and over 200 million rubles ($25,430) while procuring two ferries for occupied Crimea, according to AFP.

Ivanov was reportedly smiling when the court issued the 13-year prison sentence “in a general regime colony” and an additional fine of 100 million rubles ($1.27 million).

Ivanov’s lawyer called the ruling a “show trial” outside the court after the sentencing.

Upon his arrest, state media TASS said authorities sought a prison sentence for up to 15 years for Ivanov at the time.

Kyiv’s alleged involvement in Ivanov’s arrest

Upon Ivanov’s arrest in 2024, Kyiv Post’s sources in Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR) claimed responsibility for leaking evidence of Ivanov’s corrupt acts to get him sacked.

“In fact, he [Timur Ivanov] is a Russian patriot set up by Ukrainian intelligence, and the Kremlin elders took the bait,” the Kyiv Post source said.

According to the source, Moscow was well aware of Ivanov’s bribery, but it apparently did not warrant prosecution until the HUR-leaked evidence was publicized.

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However, the huge leak of classified information and the publicity garnered by the Ukrainian operation ended Ivanov’s tenure as deputy defense minister, the source said at the time.

Who is Timur Ivanov?

Timur Ivanov worked in the Defense Ministry for over 10 years and had been Deputy Defense Minister from 2016 until his arrest in 2024. Before that, he was the head of Oboronbud, a joint-stock company under the Ministry of Defense, for three years.

Previously, he worked as a deputy prime minister of the Moscow region and at Russian fuel and energy companies.

During his time as the Deputy Defense Minister, Ivanov oversaw multiple military construction projects.

After the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he was placed in charge of the project to supposedly restore occupied Mariupol, which sustained extensive damage inflicted by the Russian Armed Forces.