(WatchDogReport.org) – Russian authorities arrested Lt. General Vadim Shamarin in his house in Moscow on May 22 on bribery charges, which makes him the fourth high-ranking Russian military official to be detained in recent weeks. A military court ruled him to be jailed for 60 days.
Political analysts have said that his arrest is significant as he’s not only the deputy of the military’s general staff but also the head of the leading communications direction of Russia’s Defense Ministry. Some even claimed that his arrest represents the latest step taken by the Kremlin to make a radical change in the ministry, which has been blamed for the poor results in the war against Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently dismissed his old-time friend and ally Sergei Shoigu from his post as the defense minister, with independent journalists saying that he did it to appease some of the main heads in the Kremlin.
On their Telegram channels, Russian reporters explained that many other officials of the ministry have also been dismissed or arrested over the last few weeks. They added that while the Kremlin hasn’t announced too many details about these cases, it said in a statement that Russian authorities have taken these actions to eradicate corruption in the ministry, which is mainly related to military contracts.
Shamarin is a deputy for the Russian army’s chief of general staff, Valery Gerasimov, which has prompted speculation Gerasimov may be the next high-ranking official to be arrested in the coming days or weeks. However, while he has been widely criticized over the performance of the Russian military in its invasion of Ukraine, he hasn’t been formally accused of any wrongdoing.
During a May 23 press conference in Moscow, the Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian government wasn’t executing any “targeted purge” against any political group in the country. He also told reporters that the only thing the Kremlin was doing was fighting “against corruption,” which he described as an “integral” activity of every law enforcement agency in Russia.
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