Deputy Chief of Staff of the Russian Army arrested amid military corruption investigations

Russian media reported on Thursday that the Russian Deputy Chief of Staff was arrested after being accused of accepting a large bribe, the latest in a series of alleged corruption cases that have rocked Russia’s top military leadership.

The arrest of Lieutenant General Vadim Shamarin, which a military court confirmed to Russian news agencies, is the fourth arrest of a senior defense official within one month, starting on April 23, when Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was placed in pretrial detention. Arrest on suspicion of bribery.

Since then, Lieutenant General Yuri Kuznetsov, Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Defense, and Major General Ivan Popov, former commander of the Russian 58th Army, have been detained.

It was not immediately known how Chamarin pleaded. His home was reportedly searched in connection with the investigation and he was placed in pretrial detention for two months.

Since 2020, Chamarin has been responsible for supervising the Army Signal Corps, which is responsible for military communications, including ensuring secret command signals on the battlefield.

These arrests are the biggest scandal to hit the Russian army in recent years, and come at a time when it has regained the initiative on the battlefield in Ukraine and has a new defense minister, the economist Andrei Belousov.

The appointment of Belousov, who has no military experience, was widely seen, among other things, as a move to eliminate waste and corruption in defense spending. Sergei Shoigu, a former minister, was transferred to become Secretary of the Russian Security Council.