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In the middle of the Ukraine war, Vladimir Putin has once again arrested a general of the Russian army. The Moscow autocrat’s actions are reminiscent of Joseph Stalin.
Moscow – The so-called “Stalin purges” have become deeply ingrained in Russia’s culture of remembrance. They serve as an indication of how the Kremlin in Moscow is able to deal with its people, with its nation, in drastic cases.
Russia under Vladimir Putin: Kremlin chief persecutes political opponents and military
A look back: The then autocratic Prime Minister of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, first had politically potential (and actual) oppositionists and militarily ambitious officers persecuted and even murdered in the “Great Terror” between 1936 and 1938 and after the Second World War in a second wave of purges between 1948 and 1953.
Are there parallels to the year 2024? It has long been known that Kremlin autocrat Vladimir Putin acts brutally against political opponents in today’s Russian Federation, the successor state to the Soviet Union. One need only think of the case Alexei Navalny What is striking is that in recent weeks the Russian ruler has either replaced or arrested a number of high-ranking commanders in his army – and this in the middle of the war in Ukraine. Now the next arrest has followed.
High losses for Russia in Ukraine: Gerasimov fell out of favor with Putin
Specifically: As the Russian state news agency Cup As reported on Thursday (May 23), the head of the Main Communications Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces, Vadim Shamarin, was arrested for alleged bribery on a particularly large scale. Explosive: Lieutenant General Shamarin is the deputy chief of the General Staff, and thus a confidant of the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov.
The 68-year-old Gerasimov, who is the top general of Putin’s troops, has fallen out of favor with the Moscow ruler several times since the beginning of the illegal attack on Ukraine in February 2022 due to severe military defeats and devastating losses among Russian soldiers. The Russians have found no means of countering Ukrainian attacks on their Black Sea fleet with the Magura V5 surface drone or Ukrainian air strikes with ATACMS missiles – to name just two examples among many.
Recent arrests of top Russian generals and military officers under Vladimir Putin
- April 24, 2024: Timur IvanovDeputy Minister of Defense, for allegedly accepting particularly large bribes
- May 14, 2024: Lieutenant General Yuri KuznetsovHead of the Main Personnel Directorate of the Ministry of Defence, for alleged bribery on a particularly large scale
- May 17, 2024: Major General Ivan Popovformer commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army, for alleged fraud on a particularly large scale
- May 23, 2024: Lieutenant General Vadim ShamarinHead of the Main Communications Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces and Deputy Chief of the General Staff, for alleged bribery on a particularly large scale
Bribery in the Russian army? Putin has General Shamarin arrested
Nevertheless, Gerasimov came through the recent personnel reshuffles in Moscow unscathed. To put it in context: in mid-May, Putin appointed the governor of the Tula region, Alexei Djumin, as his personal adviser in the presidential administration and replaced the long-standing defense minister Sergei Shoigu with the economic expert Andrei Belousov. But is the arrest of his confidant Shamarin also a signal to the Chief of the General Staff?
The military court of the 235th garrison took Lieutenant General Shamarin into custody for two months, writes CupAccording to Article 290, Part 6 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, he is accused of accepting bribes of at least one million rubles. That is more than 10,000 euros. According to the pro-Kremlin news agency, the maximum penalty for this offense is 15 years in prison and a fine of 100 times the amount of the bribe.
Under Vladimir Putin: Several Russian generals arrested and detained
Does this bring back memories of the Stalin era? Shamarin is at least part of a veritable wave of arrests within the Russian military since the insidious invasion of its western neighbour. According to the international research network Bellingcat In spring 2022, after the first serious setbacks in Ukraine, Putin had General Roman Gavrilov, then deputy head of the Russian National Guard, arrested.
In mid-May, shortly after Shoigu’s demotion, the head of the personnel administration in the Russian Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant General Yuri Kuznetsov, was arrested and detained. He is also said to be Cup alleged bribery. Around Pentecost, Putin fired loudly Interfax then Colonel General Yuri Sadovenko, the deputy defense minister. The other former deputy defense minister, Timur Ivanov, has been in custody since April on suspicion of corruption. Now the Kremlin autocrat has had Shamarin eliminated. (pm)
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