Photo Credit: Kremlin Photo Pool
A second senior Russian Defense Ministry official was arrested on bribery charges, officials said Tuesday, days after President Vladimir Putin replaced the defense minister in a Cabinet shake-up that fueled expectations of more purges at the ministry.
The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top state criminal investigation agency, said that Lt. Gen. Yury Kuznetsov, the chief of the ministry’s main personnel directorate, was arrested on charges of bribery and placed in custody pending investigation and trial.
Kuznetsov is accused of accepting an exceptionally large bribe, a charge punishable by up to 15 years in prison. His home and other properties were searched and authorities seized gold coins, luxury items and over 100 million rubles (just over $1 million) in cash, the committee said in a statement.
On Sunday, Putin reshuffled his Cabinet as he starts his fifth term in office, replacing Sergei Shoigu, who served as defense minister for 11 1/2 years, with Andrei Belousov, an economics expert and former deputy prime minister. Putin named Shoigu the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, a role roughly similar to the U.S. national security adviser, replacing Nikolai Patrushev.
Patrushev, a longtime hawkish and powerful member of Putin’s inner circle who held the job for 16 years, was appointed a presidential aide. Alexei Dyumin, the governor of the Tula region and often mentioned as one of Putin’s potential successors, was also appointed a presidential aide in the reshuffle.
