The Russian Court ordered this Thursday (23) the arrest for two months of General Vadim Shamarin, head of the General Office of Communications of the Russian Armed Forces and “number two” of the General Staff, on corruption charges, reported the news agency TASS.
Shamarin, who is the third Russian general to be arrested in almost a month, is accused of accepting bribes.
According to Russian authorities, the general received, between April 2016 and October 2023, a total of 36 million rubles (almost US$400,000) from Alexei Vizokov, head of the Telta telephone factory in Russia’s Perm region, and the company’s chief accountant, Yelena Gryoshina. The 53-year-old general will have to remain in prison until at least July 22.
The charges against Shamarin could lead to a prison sentence of up to 15 years, according to the Russian agency.
The general, who headed the Army’s General Communications Office, had held the position of deputy chief of staff since 2021. He replaced Jalil Arslanov, who was arrested in 2020 on charges of fraud and corruption.
In recent weeks, allegations of corruption have already led to the arrest of Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov and Yuri Kuznetsov, head of the department’s personnel office. This week, Russian justice took the former commander of the 58th Army of the Russian Armed Forces, Ivan Popov, into custody.
The arrests of high-ranking military officers come amid a major shake-up at the Russian Defense Ministry, following the dismissal of its minister, Sergey Shoigu, who was replaced by economist Andrei Belousov.
On Monday, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin also fired Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Sadovenko, who was replaced by Oleg Saveliev, who until then was an auditor at the Russian Accounts Chamber.
Putin had previously estimated defense and security spending for this year at 8.7% of gross domestic product (GDP) and justified Belousov’s appointment with the need to manage these enormous resources and modernize the armed forces and military industry.
Likewise, the head of the Kremlin guaranteed that the Army is improving its positions on the front “daily”, which is why there will be no changes in the General Staff.