Shoigu’s deputy ended up in handcuffs, he faces up to fifteen years for the huge bribe

Ivanov was responsible, for example, for the project of the so-called restoration of the occupied Ukrainian Mariupol, the construction of the main temple of the Russian Armed Forces or the Vostochny Cosmodrome. He has been Deputy Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu since 2016. It is not clear how big a bribe Ivanov took, but the Russian media, citing the authorities, write that it was a large amount.

The RBK portal published a photo in which Ivanov is still participating in a meeting of ministerial officials, which was chaired by Shoigu, on Tuesday morning.

According to Russian media, Ivanov is the most senior Russian official to face corruption charges since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The EU and the US imposed sanctions on the 48-year-old Ivanov the year before.

Collaborators of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny state that Ivanov owns real estate in Moscow and other Russian cities worth approximately one billion dollars (24 billion crowns). Forbes magazine ranked him among the richest men in Russian security structures.

Navalny’s organization found that Ivanov divorced his wife the year before last to allow her to bypass EU sanctions and continue to travel the world.