Former Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov has been sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony for corruption, marking the toughest sentence so far in a series of graft investigations targeting high-level defense officials. The sentence was handed down after he was initially detained in April 2024 on bribery allegations, with embezzlement charges added in October. Ivanov, who pleaded not guilty, was stripped of honors and ordered to forfeit 2.5 billion roubles in assets, including his Moscow apartment and car collection.
The trial was held behind closed doors due to national security concerns. Ivanov’s co-defendant, Anton Filatov, a former logistics company executive, received a 12.5-year sentence. According to state media, the embezzled amount totaled 4.1 billion roubles ($48.8 million), largely funneled through bank transfers to two foreign accounts. Reports in Russian media described his and his wife’s assets, including a luxury apartment in central Moscow, a three-storey English-style mansion outside the city, and a high-end car collection featuring brands such as Bentley and Aston Martin.
Prominent Russian war correspondents known as ‘Z-bloggers’ have publicly condemned the corruption exposed within the defense sector, especially as the war in Ukraine continues. One of them, Alexander Kots, acknowledged that 13 years is a long sentence but argued that corrupt officials should face trial during wartime as ‘traitors to the Motherland.’
Since 2016, Ivanov oversaw large logistics contracts at the defense ministry, including those tied to property, housing, and medical support. He served under Sergei Shoigu, who was replaced as defense minister last year but remains influential as the secretary of Russia’s Security Council. Authorities have also arrested two of Shoigu’s other former deputies in separate cases. In April, a court sentenced Lieutenant-General Vadim Shamarin, the former deputy head of the army’s general staff, to seven years for accepting bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The wave of prosecutions reflects what appears to be President Vladimir Putin’s effort to address corruption, inefficiency, and waste in Russia’s expansive military budget, which accounts for 32% of federal spending this year.