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A second high-ranking official from the Russian Defense Ministry was arrested on bribery charges, officials announced Tuesday. This development followed President Vladimir Putin's recent replacement of the defense minister in a Cabinet reshuffle, leading to speculation about further purges within the ministry.
The Investigative Committee, Russia's top state criminal investigation agency, stated that Lt. Gen. Yury Kuznetsov, the head of the ministry’s main personnel directorate, had been arrested on charges of bribery. He has been placed in custody pending further investigation and trial. Kuznetsov is accused of accepting a significantly large bribe, an offense that could result in up to 15 years of imprisonment. Authorities conducted searches at his residence and other properties, seizing gold coins, luxury items, and over 100 million rubles (just over $1 million) in cash, according to the committee's statement.
On Sunday, Putin carried out a Cabinet reshuffle at the beginning of his fifth term in office, replacing Sergei Shoigu, who had served as defense minister for 11 1/2 years, with Andrei Belousov, an economics expert and former deputy prime minister. Putin appointed Shoigu as the secretary of Russia's Security Council, a role similar to that of the U.S. national security adviser, replacing Nikolai Patrushev. Patrushev, a long-standing influential member of Putin’s inner circle who had held the position for 16 years, was appointed a presidential aide. Alexei Dyumin, the governor of the Tula region and often considered one of Putin's potential successors, was also appointed a presidential aide in the reshuffle.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed reporters on Tuesday that Patrushev would oversee Russian shipbuilding industries in his new role but might also be assigned other responsibilities in the future. He dismissed suggestions that Shoigu's reshuffle represented a demotion, describing his new position as a “very senior job with broad responsibilities.”
While Shoigu, who had a personal relationship with Putin and had accompanied him on vacations in the Siberian mountains over the years, was given a new senior position, the fate of his close associates in the Defense Ministry seemed uncertain under Belousov.
Shoigu’s deputy, Timur Ivanov, was arrested last month on bribery charges and was ordered to remain in custody pending an official investigation. \
His arrest was widely seen as an attack on Shoigu and a possible precursor to his dismissal. Shoigu has been widely regarded as a key figure behind Putin’s decision to send Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
He and the chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov had faced strong criticism from Russian hawks for military setbacks, including the failure to capture Kyiv in the opening weeks of the invasion and a hasty retreat by Russian troops from northeastern and southern Ukraine in the fall of 2022.
The reshuffle comes at a time when Russian troops are advancing in several sectors in Ukraine, seeking to take advantage of a slowdown in Western aid to Ukraine in what many observers see as a critical moment in the war.
The Kremlin sought to clarify the appointment of an economics expert without any previous military experience as defense minister by emphasizing that Gerasimov, who directs the fighting in Ukraine, will retain his position.