The campaign of arrests among senior Russian army officers continues on charges related to corruption and receiving bribes
Russia has arrested a senior general over corruption allegations, Russian state news agencies reported Thursday, the third arrest of a high-ranking military figure in the past month.
A military court ordered the detention of Vadim Chamarin, Russia’s deputy chief of the General Staff, on suspicion of taking a bribe on a large scale, a charge that carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.
“On May 22, the court chose to detain Chamarin for two months,” Russian TASS news agency quoted the court as saying.
Critics and opposition figures have for years said corruption ravages Russia’s military, although its leaders rarely face any kind of investigation or punishment.
The Kremlin on Thursday denied carrying out a purge targeting senior Russian military officials following a wave of arrests inside the defense ministry and the General Staff.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “the fight against corruption is an ongoing effort; It’s not a campaign… They are an integral part of the activities of law enforcement agencies”.
Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise cabinet reshuffle in which he sacked Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, more than two years after the fighting began in Ukraine, with no clear end in sight to the conflict.
The new defense minister, Andrei Belousov, is an economist with no military experience, which caused controversy in Russian public circles about the intentions of the upcoming trends to bring about changes in the structure of the Russian military institution.
