More than two years after the start of the large-scale project war against Ukraine and an endless series of reports on the dysfunction and chaos within the Russian militarythe Kremlin now openly admits that its army is a complete disaster.
The latest indication came from Thursday’s arrest of the fourth senior Russian military official in a month: the deputy army chief, Lieutenant General Vadim Shamarin, is in pre-trial detention and faces up to 15 years prison for corruption. charges. The investigative committee claims that Shamarin accepted a bribe on “a particularly large scale” when awarding state contracts.
The fall of Shamarin, who was responsible for military communications in Ukraine, was welcomed by Russian troops who blamed the general’s terrible performance on the job for thousands of battlefield deaths.
It also seemed like a posthumous greeting from the founder of the Wagner Group. Eugene Prigozhin, whose angry demands for the ouster of top military leaders during his brief mutiny last year appear to be increasingly coming to fruition. He got his wish earlier this month to see Sergei Shoigu removed as defense minister, and now the Kremlin’s purge of military leaders is drawing closer. Valery GerasimovChief of Staff.
It is perhaps no coincidence that Wagner-related Telegram channels this week picked up Prigozhin’s year-old comment that “Shoigu and Gerasimov have turned this war into entertainment and, because of their whims, five times as many men died as they should have.”
Even with Shamarin’s arrest, it’s clear that many soldiers still hold grudges.
“Even 15 years in prison is nothing” compared to the “several thousand people who literally died” because of the poor communications he provided, a Telegram channel linked to Wagner wrote.
The Kremlin, for its part, has welcomed its anti-corruption campaign, while insisting that no widespread purge is underway, despite the rapid fall of the four top officials.
“The fight against corruption is an ongoing effort. This is not a campaign. This is an integral part of the activities of law enforcement,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
Former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was the biggest name arrested last month, followed by the head of the Defense Ministry’s Personnel Directorate, Yury Kuznetsov, and former army commander, Major General Ivan Popov (whom investigators have since requested to be released under house arrest). All face corruption-related charges.
Left unanswered is why Moscow has only embarked on this anti-corruption fight now, long after reports of humiliating battlefield casualties and widespread dysfunction exposed the rot at the center of corruption. army.
It seems telling that the Kremlin is cleaning house, as it increasingly relies on China to keep the war machine afloat. During his visit to China last week, Putin appeared to mock corruption-obsessed Chinese President Xi Jinping, revealing that his family was learning Mandarin and calling himself and his Chinese counterpart “close like brothers.” . Of course, all this has happened when the Russian leader needs an ally, ideally one with money, more than ever. Which would explain why Putin was accompanied by the governor of the Central Bank of Russia, his finance minister and his economic advisor.
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