RUSSIA (AP) — A second senior Russian Protection Ministry official was arrested on corruption expenses, authorities mentioned Tuesday, days after President Vladimir Putin changed the protection minister in a authorities shakeup that fueled hypothesis about new purges within the division.
The Investigative Committee, Russia’s high safety physique, mentioned in an announcement that Lieutenant Common Yury Kuznetsov, head of the ministry’s predominant personnel workplace, was arrested for bribery and detained pending investigation and trial.
Kuznetsov is accused of accepting a remarkably giant bribe, a cost punishable by as much as 15 years in jail. His house and different properties have been raided and authorities seized gold cash, luxurious objects and 100 million rubles (simply over 1,000,000 {dollars}) in money, the Committee mentioned in an announcement.
Putin on Sunday changed Sergei Shoigu as protection minister, a put up he had held for 12 and a half years, in the beginning of his fifth time period in energy, and named him secretary of the Safety Council, a place much like that of adviser to Nationwide Safety in the US, changing Nikolai Patrushev.
To take over the ministry he proposed Andrei Belousov, a senior financial official and former deputy prime minister. Many anticipate Belousov to hold out extra purges.
Patrushev, a robust member of Putin’s inside circle, was named presidential adviser. Alexei Dyumin, the governor of the Tula area and who is commonly talked about as one of many president’s doable successors, may even transfer to a presidential advisory place after the federal government restructuring.
Though Shoigu, who has a private relationship with Putin and for years accompanied him on trip within the Siberian mountains, will occupy one other high-profile place, the way forward for his closest staff within the Protection Ministry appeared in query with Belousov on the helm.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov instructed reporters on Tuesday that Patrushev will oversee Russia’s shipbuilding industries in his new function, however might tackle different tasks later.
Moreover, he rejected claims that Shoigu’s switch was a demotion, describing his new occupation as a “very high-level place with broad tasks.”
Shoigu’s deputy minister, Timur Ivanov, was arrested final month on bribery expenses and will probably be detained till the investigation is accomplished. His arrest was extensively interpreted as an assault on Shoigu and a doable indication of his departure from the ministry.
Shoigu is taken into account a key determine in Putin’s determination to ship troops from Ukraine. The Kremlin hoped for an operation that might shortly overwhelm the smaller and fewer well-equipped Ukrainian military, and that the nation’s inhabitants would welcome its troops.
However the battle united Ukrainians within the protection of their nation, dealing humiliating blows to the Russian military such because the withdrawal after making an attempt to take the capital, kyiv, and a counteroffensive that expelled Moscow’s forces from the Kharkiv area and town. southern Kherson.
The reworking coincides with offensives by Russian troops on varied sectors in Ukraine, an try and reap the benefits of the slowdown within the arrival of Western help to the nation, in what many observers contemplate a decisive second within the struggle.
The Kremlin has tried to alleviate widespread confusion over the election of an financial knowledgeable with no navy background as protection minister, mentioning that Gerasimov, who directs the combating in Ukraine, maintains his place.
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2024-05-16 03:04:01
