Russian law enforcement authorities charged two more military officers with taking bribes, investigators said Monday, the latest in a string of arrests linked to alleged corruption in Russia’s Defense Ministry.
Ivan Populovsky, the head of a military representative’s office, and his subordinate, Grigory Zorin, allegedly received over 11 million rubles ($120,000) from two companies that supplied electrical goods and cables to the Defense Ministry.
In return, the men were expected to weaken their oversight of the goods and give the companies “other privileges and preferences” when carrying out state contracts, said Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes.
“During the investigation, the defendants pleaded guilty and their involvement in other similar crimes, including those related to embezzlement of funds allocated for the needs of state defense orders, is being looked into,” the law enforcement agency added.
Since late April, a number of senior military officials have been arrested on various corruption charges, part of an apparent purge within the military that also saw the dismissal of Sergei Shoigu as Russia’s defense minister in May.
While the military has been marred by repeated corruption scandals since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the problem has come under intense scrutiny since Moscow launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Last week, four current and former Russian officials, including one who worked at the Defense Ministry, were detained in separate corruption cases.
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