Russian Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov has been detained for allegedly taking bribes, media reports said.
According to reports, he will remain in custody until June 23, 2024.
The court said that Ivanov is accused of receiving a bribe as part of an organised group while performing contracted and subcontracted work for the Defence Ministry, reported TASS news agency.
Besides the minister, the court has also arrested entrepreneur Sergey Borodin as his accomplice.
“Borodin, being friends with Russian Deputy Defence Minister Ivanov who was in charge of construction issues and renovation of the Defence Ministry facilities, criminally conspired with third parties,” the court was quoted as saying by TASS.
Ivanov has served as a deputy defence minister of the country since May 2016.
He is facing a prison term of up to 15 years.
A source in law enforcement agencies told TASS that Ivanov was detained at his workplace.
The allegation makes this the highest-profile corruption case since the war between Russia and Ukraine started in 2022.
In April 2023, the chairperson of the late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s International Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), Maria Pevchikh told CNN that Ivanov had “one of the most lucrative jobs that one can have in the Ministry of Defence”.
Last year, Pevchikh told CNN that the deputy defence minister’s extreme wealth – with assets including a historical house in one of Moscow’s most expensive districts – is funded by “corruption”. The Russian Ministry of Defence did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.