Why are top Russian military officials being arrested?
- Five defence officials have been arrested in a month in a widening bribery scandal
- Arrests are part of the most serious reshuffle in Russia’s military leadership in years
It began last month with the arrest of a Russian deputy defence minister. Then the head of the ministry’s personnel directorate was hauled into court. This week, two more senior military officials were detained. All face charges of corruption, which they have denied.
The arrests began after President Vladimir Putin began his fifth term and shuffled his ally, long-time Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, into a new post.
It immediately raised questions about whether Putin was reasserting control over the Defence Ministry amid the war in Ukraine, whether a turf battle had broken out between the military and the security services, or whether some other scenario was playing out behind the Kremlin’s walls.
Corruption scandals are not new and officials and top officials have been accused of profiting from their positions for decades.
Corruption in Russia functions as both a carrot and stick. It’s a way of “encouraging loyalty and urging people to be on the same page,” as well as a method of control, said Sam Greene, director of Democratic Resilience at the Centre for European Policy Analysis.
Putin wants everyone to have “a skeleton in their closet,” security expert Mark Galeotti said on a recent podcast. If the state has compromising material on key officials, it can cherry-pick whom to target, he added.