The contents of this article are written with authoritative materials and personal opinions. The source of the literature has been marked at the end of the article, so please know.
Preliminary
The soldiers on the front lines of the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield fought bloody battles, while the senior officials in the rear spent their time, with cash, jewelry and various brand-name watches piled up.
On the occasion of Russian President Vladimir Putin's imminent visit to China, high-level Russian military officials suddenly disclosed the inside story of a "serious case", which was jaw-dropping.
Shoigu's cronies were arrested, what happened to the Russian military's top management? Putin's determination to "fight corruption with an iron fist", what is the purpose?
Last April, an "anti-corruption storm" broke out within the Russian military, and several senior generals were arrested.
Among them, two of the most famous are former Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Thymur Ivanov, and the former Director of the Department of Human Resources of the Russian Federation, Kuznetsov, who were, without exception, close officials of former Defense Minister Shoigu.
Some time ago, when the Ivanov case was in court, the Russian side held a closed trial on the grounds that it "involved military secrets", which aroused widespread dissatisfaction in Russia.
But this time before Putin left, officials from the Russian military court rarely disclosed the details of the Kuznetsov case before the trial.
According to the report, more than 500 million rubles were found in the home of the former defense official.
When Russian military personnel entered Kuznetsov's home and searched, they found a large amount of cash in rubles, dollars and euros. In addition, they also found as many as 94 pieces of jewelry, 59 gold coins and 240 million rubles worth of real estate.
At the time of the crime, the Russian military believed that his embezzlement amount was only about 7 million rubles of land and housing.
The more searches were conducted, the more unknown property was found, as well as property registered in the name of the wife's daughter.
At present, the Russian court has planned to confiscate all the money. As for Kuznetsov's sentence, it will be decided after the trial.
Looking at the official's resume, he was promoted by Shoigu to the leader of the Russian information security department in 2010, and was promoted to high-level personnel positions after the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Both jobs were "fat jobs".
Earlier evidence showed that Kuznetsov and many Russian businessmen had “illegal transactions” to make profits from their positions.
Several similar incidents have been exposed in the Russian army before. Military generals used their powers and authority in charge of procurement to reach an exchange of interests with businessmen and obtained huge rewards from them.
Because after the Russia-Ukraine conflict, orders for defense projects have also increased several times compared with before, making these people more profitable.
In addition, Ivanov, the former deputy minister who had not been publicly heard before, and Russian independent media also unearthed some information through investigation.
He was accused of collecting bribes in the amount of 11.8 billion rubles for construction companies, illegally transferring more than 3.9 billion rubles, misusing public funds in the procurement of ferries, and more.
Summarizing these cases, it is not difficult to see that the "key areas of corruption" of these officials of the Russian Ministry of Defense are almost all focused on the payment of engineering projects, and they have reached an exchange of interests with domestic engineering businesspeople.
The worst consequences of doing so have been destructive and abominable effects on Russian defense security, creating a lot of “waste engineering” on the battlefield and burying Russian soldiers in vain.
Take, for example, the former commander of the 58th Army Ivan Popov, who previously led the famous "Royal Army" of Oehh, responsible for the decision-making power of defense on the battlefield.
It was also this fierce general who resold 2000 tons of metal used by the Russian government to allocate funds on the front line to purchase construction, and collected 100 million rubles from the proceeds.
This directly led to the collapse of the barbed wire and anti-tank fortifications on the front line when the Ukrainian army counterattacked, causing a large number of soldiers to lose their lives in vain.
During the counterattack of the Ukrainian army in the Kursk region last year, many similar situations also occurred.
Former Russian Transport Minister Starowayt was accused of wasting large amounts of government funds when he previously set up the Kursk border defence line, buying items such as useless containers at prices several times higher than the market.
The result was that the Russian defense line built by tens of billions of rubles could not stop the Ukrainian army's attack, and later lost thousands of people in order to retake Kursk.
So now the corruption within the Russian army has had a serious impact on the whole situation on the battlefield, and the Russian highest level had to intervene.
Many people think that Russia's direct public investigation of Kuznetsov's case is to give all Russian military officials a "beating warning" to remind them that the current Russian government's determination to fight corruption is beyond doubt.
Last year, Putin also made a key personal appointment: to serve as the 12-year Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Shoigu, to be taken over by the economic official Belousov as Minister of Defense.
At that time, many media once believed that Shoigu might be involved in the corruption of the Russian army, but he sat firmly in the position of secretary of the powerful Russian Federation Security Council and was still in charge of the Russian army's military production, much to Putin's satisfaction.
This also shows that the arrest of his trusted officials did not affect Shoygu's appointment.
This matter once caused heated discussions in the Russian media. Some people believed that Russia's "implicated treatment" of corruption was too light.
Similar things that have been exposed many times on the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield have not been “radicalized” so much that weaknesses in the procurement link caused by corruption have broken out in the military equipment sector.
Some military-industrial enterprises and military personnel "co-operate" in the procurement of equipment with secondary, false prices.
Even vital battlefield materials such as ammunition and artillery shells often have loopholes and untimely procurement, which seriously affects the enthusiasm of the army.
At the beginning of the war, many Ukrainian soldiers used the help of the air-related "sweepstakes" and even sold Western military aid to the black market.
After a wave of anti-corruption actions by Zelensky in 2023, the situation improved slightly.
Some Russian media also believe that at present, when Russia's domestic finances are tight, if they want to continue the war for a long time, they have to take such vigorous measures, because every penny is particularly precious.
At present, in order to ensure that limited funds can make the most of the benefits, in order to ensure that the country's investments in military construction can be paid back accordingly, Putin must struggle to correct the issue of corruption.
The Russian army's next war direction is "the entire land of Donbas", taking into account that there are likely to be several years of tough battles to be fought.
A corrupt army cannot accommodate the needs of modern warfare, and it is only by removing the corrupt tumor within the Russian army that a modern army with strict discipline, efficiency and integrity can be established to fulfill the ultimate goal of “special military operations”.
reference
The Russian Ministry of Defense's Largest Corruption Scandal Convicted, Shoigu's Cronies Sentenced to 13 Years in Prison But Refused to Plead Guilty
Former Director of the General Administration of the Ministry of Defense was arrested and found 500 million rubles of property, rare coins and jewelry in his home.
"Suspected of taking bribes! Another senior Russian defense official arrested" China News Network