Unprecedented Defense Ministry Purge Sparks Concern in Russian Elite

Is the end of the megalomaniac and war criminal Putin the Terrible near? Hope and pray!

When will the lethargic, apathetic, and Russian Slav(e)s finally get rid of their last tsar, the megalomaniac and war criminal Putin the Terrible! How many more young Russian men have to die or be maimed because Putin the Terrible has conducted a “special military operation” in the Ukraine since February of 2022!

"... The biggest source of tension within the Russian elites in 2024 was the purge of the Defense Ministry. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was moved to a different post, and several dozen officials were detained over the course of many months, including three former deputy defense ministers. The shake-up was likely conceived as a way to improve the management of Russia’s ballooning military spending. In order to speed up the process of clearing out Shoigu-era placeholders, the Kremlin opted for a method that could be described as “rotation through repression.” This is not a new approach, but the scale of what occurred at the Defense Ministry is unprecedented. The purge has not only redirected rent flows associated with the ministry, but also led to the dismantling of Shoigu’s entire clan within the Russian elite. Although Shoigu seems—for the moment—to be under the personal protection of President Vladimir Putin, he has been powerless to intervene in unfolding events. The easiest way to understand the purge is to look at the criminal cases that followed the first—and most high-profile—arrest: that of Shoigu’s long-time associate, ex-deputy defense minister Timur Ivanov. Each wave of arrests seemed to lead to new arrests in turn, as well as generate new charges against Ivanov himself. After Ivanov’s arrest in April 2024, he was charged with the embezzlement of 1.18 billion rubles ($11.5 million). That was followed by the arrest of two other senior officials at the Defense Ministry: Yury Kuznetsov, accused of selling state secrets to contractors linked with Ivanov, and Vladimir Verteletsky, who oversaw spending on digitization. ..."

Unprecedented Defense Ministry Purge Sparks Concern in Russian Elite | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace "The anxiety among the broader elite caused by the Defense Ministry purge has been intensified by the fact that newly available rent flows have been divided up among different elite groups."