Putin's defense shake-up: High-ranking generals dismissed amidst corruption scrutiny

Both the corrupt entourage of Sergey Shoigu and the generals who did not meet the expectations of the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin have suffered as a result of the personnel purges in the Ministry of Defense. What was the goal of the series of resignations?

Several groups of high-ranking military personnel have suffered as a result of the personnel purges in the Russian Ministry of Defense. The first to be targeted were individuals from Sergey Shoigu’s circle. Consequently, several generals who did not meet the Kremlin's expectations lost their positions.

However, the arrest of General Ivan Popov also deserves attention, as he, on the contrary, enjoys high authority within the army but was deemed too harsh in his conflict with the Ministry of Defense leadership.

As the Russian portal Meduza emphasizes, all these personnel reshuffles within the department responsible for Russian aggression on Ukraine are ultimately aimed at increasing the efficiency of the military machine before the next large-scale operation.

The series of high-level resignations among Russian military personnel provides an opportunity to summarize the initial results of this purge. By early June, there had already been five such resignations, clearly indicating a coordinated action. However, much suggests that the arrests were carried out for various reasons.

At least three recent arrests are part of a purge among individuals close to Sergey Shoigu, who resigned as head of the Ministry of Defense.

In Russia, as in other similar regimes, changes in management personnel are often accompanied by corruption. For over 10 years, Shoigu and his circle have controlled one of the most attractive financial sources—state defense expenditures.

The attractiveness of this asset lies in its incredible capacity for corruption. These are gigantic budgets: between 2013 and 2023, almost 35 trillion rubles were spent on “national defense.” Most of these funds were managed by Shoigu's personnel.

As a result, President Putin transferred Shoigu to another high position, thus personally providing him with immunity while leaving his team unprotected.

The first casualty of Putin's purge at the end of April was Timur Ivanov, who served as the director of finances related to the construction of facilities for the Ministry of Defense. Several other individuals linked to Ivanov were also detained.

The second to leave was Yuri Kuznetsov, who served as the head of the ministry's personnel department for the past year and previously headed the department of state secrecy protection in the General Staff.

Among Shoigu's fallen associates is Vladimir Verteletskiy, who worked in the ministry's government procurement department, where he oversaw government contracts related to digitization. Compared to Ivanov and Kuznetsov, Verteletskiy appears to be a significantly less important figure—he was merely a department manager.