Previously, Ivanov worked in energy companies and was also involved in the construction industry – in short, an area where big money is made not only in Russia. Deputy of Sergei Shoigu became Ivanov already in 2012, it was not yet a question of the Department of Defense. At that time, he promoted Shoigu from the Minister for Emergency Situations to the Governor of the Moscow Region. He was there for only a few months before taking over the defense, while Ivanov remained in the regional administration for four years. At the same time, he was the director of the joint-stock company Oboronstroj, owned by the Ministry of Defense. Shoigu called him back in autumn 2016.
At the ministry, Timur Ivanov was mainly in charge of military real estate and the accommodation of soldiers, including the projects of the new Vostochny Cosmodrome, the construction of which is taking enormously longer and more expensive, but also restoration of the occupied bombed-out Mariupol.
On Tuesday, Ivanov was arrested at his workplace on suspicion of corruption, and he allegedly confessed immediately, an unnamed source from the security forces told TASS. A day later, a Moscow court imposed custody on him, as well as on Sergei Borodin. His name appears in a number of companies connected in one way or another with Ivanov and business around the Ministry of Defense.
“Borodin was detained earlier in another case and during the investigation he entered into a preliminary agreement and testified against the Deputy Minister of Defense,” the REN TV source said. “They have been friends for a long time. They often celebrated birthdays together with their families,” adds the Ura website.
Then on Thursday, news came that the man who, according to the authorities, bribed Ivanov was also arrested. Alexander Fomin is building new buildings in Mariupol, he repeatedly appeared with Ivanov. In exchange for the allocation of army contracts, the companies renovated the deputy’s real estate, according to investigators.
Two independent sources of the iStories investigative editorial office close to the FSB said that the real reason for the arrest of deputy Ivanov is treason. “Bribery is for the public. For now, they don’t want to talk publicly about the state – the scandal is big: It’s about the deputy minister of defense, after all.” one of the sources said. “No one would arrest him for corruption. Everyone in the Kremlin had known about her for a long time. Putin he gave the order only after they managed to convince him that it was treason,” says another source.
“Now they’re deciding what to do with him: Either lock him up for bribery and ‘finish’ him in prison, or reclassify the charge to treason,” a source close to the FSB tells iStories.
Shame on the FSB and the Ministry of Defense
Russian law enforcement agencies have had incriminating materials on Ivanov for a number of years. The investigator of the Investigative Committee informed Roman Anin, the editor-in-chief of iStories, about this already in 2017. According to him, the materials collected by the Investigative Committee related to Ivanov’s activities at the head of the Oboronstroj company. However, the Russian authorities did not allow the materials to be used at the time: Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stood up for Ivanov. “He personally called Yuryev (head of the FSB military counter-intelligence directorate – DVKR FSB) and scolded him profanity for the fact that the FSB was after his loved ones,” said the anonymous investigator.
“I am almost certain that no treason will appear in the case of Timur Ivanov. Because that would mean that for the entire 11 years that he worked with Sergei Shoigu, there was a traitor, an enemy and a spy in the leadership of the Ministry of Defense – and that this was not noticed by the FSB military counter-intelligence, which vetted him before he was appointed to the post of Deputy Minister of Defense,” Ilya Rozhdestvensky, an investigative journalist of the Dossier project, tells Radio Svoboda.
“So far we see one particular character, a very striking, charming, very rich guy with a very rich, striking wife. He is engaged in construction. All over the world, the construction industry is known to attract the mafia, corrupt officials and so on, because there is a huge amount of money that can be stolen from each construction site. And this figure stole from all military contracts,” political scientist Fyodor Krašeninnikov commented to Rádio Svoboda.
Ivanov is close not only to Shoigu – he is friends with President Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov. This was shown the year before last by the investigative reporters of the Navalny channel, who discussed, among other things, the Instagram profile of the deputy’s wife, Svetlana Ivanova, as well as her e-mails. Peskov is photographed with them at a number of expensive parties. For example, the one where the Kremlin spokesman drinks in a bear costume.
According to Krasheninnikov, because of his shamelessness, Ivanov lost in an underworld battle with some of his competitors who are vying for his very lucrative position. “It should be noted that this is a person close to Shoigu, and it is obvious that he shared his great leader.” adds the political scientist. “Apparently this is a war within the power bloc where the law enforcers are eating each other. It’s an apparatchik squabble, perhaps an effort to put pressure on Shoigu or get rid of him altogether, as a new government is being formed.”
With President Vladimir Putin’s new term beginning on May 7, a new government will be named. “The arrest of one of Shoigu’s closest associates weakens the position of the head of the ministry in anticipation of possible personnel changes in the government,” Bloomberg writes with reference to informed sources.
“I think that in the eyes of patriots, this is a strong blow to the prestige of the Russian army. Because the whole campaign – let’s all rally around the army and its leadership, after all, they are so good, after all, they protect Matička Rus – certainly looks strange against the background of the fact that the Deputy Minister of Defense was arrested as a fraud. It turns out that the army has been stealing for two years and there are corrupt officials in charge, on such a scale that it is impossible not to arrest them any further.” says Krasheninnikov on Radio Svoboda.
Many opponents of the war in Ukraine are cheering how the looting is dismantling Russia’s armed forces. But according to Krašeninnikov, such hope that corruption would reduce the fighting ability of the occupiers is odd. “Unfortunately, the arrest of one corrupt official and the replacement of another crook will have no effect on the defense capabilities of the Russian army and the course of the war in Ukraine.” adds the political scientist, saying that, on the contrary, such thieves are interested in the largest possible production of weapons. “War makes it possible to write off everything you stole. War is the dream of the corrupt, they want war to never end because they will make endless money from it.”
