A 2nd senior Russian Protection Ministry reputable was once arrested on bribery fees, officers stated Tuesday, days after President Vladimir Putin changed the protection minister in a Cupboard shake-up that fueled expectancies of extra purges on the ministry.
The Investigative Committee, Russia’s most sensible state legal investigation company, stated that Lt. Gen. Yury Kuznetsov, the executive of the ministry’s primary staff directorate, was once arrested on fees of bribery and positioned in custody pending investigation and trial.
Kuznetsov is accused of accepting an exceptionally huge bribe, a price punishable by means of as much as 15 years in jail. His house and different homes had been searched and government seized gold cash, luxurious pieces and over 100 million rubles (simply over $1 million) in money, the committee stated in a commentary.
On Sunday, Putin reshuffled his Cupboard as he begins his 5th time period in workplace, changing Sergei Shoigu, who served as protection minister for 11 1/2 years, with Andrei Belousov, an economics knowledgeable and previous deputy top minister. Putin named Shoigu the secretary of Russia’s Safety Council, a task kind of very similar to the U.S. nationwide safety adviser, changing Nikolai Patrushev.
Patrushev, an established hawkish and robust member of Putin’s interior circle, was once appointed a presidential aide. Alexei Dyumin, the governor of the Tula area and steadily discussed as one in every of Putin’s possible successors, was once additionally appointed a presidential aide within the reshuffle.
Whilst Shoigu, who had non-public ties with Putin and accompanied him on holidays within the Siberian mountains through the years, was once given a brand new senior process, the way forward for his shut entourage within the Protection Ministry seemed unsure below Belousov.
Shoigu’s deputy, Timur Ivanov, was once arrested remaining month on bribery fees and was once ordered to stay in custody pending an reputable investigation. His arrest was once broadly interpreted as an assault on Shoigu and a imaginable precursor to his dismissal.
Shoigu has been broadly observed as a key determine at the back of Putin’s resolution to ship Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022. He and the executive of the Common Personnel Gen. Valery Gerasimov had confronted sturdy grievance from Russian hawks for the army setbacks, together with the failure to seize Kyiv within the opening weeks of the invasion and a hasty retreat by means of Russian troops from northeastern and southern Ukraine within the fall of 2022.
The shake-up comes as Russian troops are urgent offensives in different sectors in Ukraine looking to make the most of a slowdown in Western help to Ukraine in what many observers see as a decisive second within the struggle.
The Kremlin sought to ease the in style bewilderment over opting for an economics knowledgeable with none previous army report as protection minister by means of emphasizing that Gerasimov, who directs the preventing in Ukraine, has stored his publish.
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