Russian Defence Ministry rocked by corruption probes and arrests
At the age of 62, Russian Gen. Magomed Chandayev passed away. He was responsible for all construction projects in the ministry when Sergey Shoigu was heading the defence ministry. Chandayev also directly reported to Deputy Minister of Defence Timur Ivanov, who was arrested in April and accused of taking multi-million rouble bribes.
Chandayev was long responsible for constructing facilities for the Russian Ministry of Defence, directly reporting to former Deputy Minister Timur Ivanov, who was, in turn, a subordinate of former Minister Sergey Shoigu.
From 2018 to 2022, Chandayev was the General Director of the Capital Construction Customer Department of the Ministry of Defence, and since June 2022, the General Director of the Main Directorate of Special Construction.
The deceased general held the rank of State Counsellor of the 2nd class and the rank of reserve colonel. In 2021, Ivanov personally presented Chandayev with the Order of Alexander Nevsky. The colonel also held the Order of Honour and the Order of Military Merit.
Chandayev's sudden death raises the question of whether the general managed to testify in the case against Ivanov. Investigators accuse him of accepting a bribe of 1.185 billion roubles (approximately CAD 16 million).
Operation approved by Putin
Ivanov was detained on 23 April and arrested the next day. Shortly afterwards, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin dismissed Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu, who had been at the helm of the military department for 12 years. In the weeks following Shoigu's dismissal, three senior generals of the Russian army were arrested.
Also, in May, the head of the Main Personnel Directorate of the Ministry of Defence, Gen. Yuri Kuznetsov, was arrested. He was charged with accepting a bribe of 30.5 million roubles (CAD 514,000). In addition, the former commander of the 58th Army of the Southern Military District, Gen. Ivan Popov (accused of fraud), and the head of the public procurement department of the Ministry of Defence, Col. Vladimir Verteletsky, were arrested.
On 23 May, a court decision led to the arrest of Gen. Vadim Shamarin, Deputy Chief of the Main Directorate of Communications of the Armed Forces of Russia. The Investigative Committee accuses him of accepting a bribe of 36 million roubles (CAD 606,000).
Sources from "The Moscow Times" in the Kremlin and the government report that the FSB initiated the military department's "cleansing" campaign and was personally approved by Vladimir Putin.
According to them, the special services want to blame the army for Ukraine's failures and gain control over the Ministry of Defence's enormous budgets. A government source noted that this is just the beginning, and by the end of the year, "hundreds of people" will be arrested in all Ministry of Defence units.
