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September 19 () –
A Moscow court on Thursday decided to extend until December 23 the pre-trial detention of former Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, arrested in late April and accused of having received bribes “on a large scale.”
The Russian courts have said in a statement that this decision “satisfies the request of the investigation.” Ivanov’s defence had requested that the former deputy minister be placed under house arrest, but the Moscow court has rejected this request.
Ivanov’s lawyer has stressed that there is nothing new in his client’s case, to whom the court has only offered to recognize his guilt, a claim that the former deputy minister has rejected, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
Ivanov, considered one of the trusted men of former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (2012-2024), was sent to prison along with his alleged accomplices, businessmen Alexander Fomin and Sergei Borodin.
According to the investigation, Ivanov and Borodin are part of a “criminal conspiracy” with third parties from which they allegedly received bribes on a “large scale” in exchange for contracting works for the Ministry of Defense.
Ivanov has categorically denied these accusations and has insisted on his innocence. The former deputy to Shoigu is the main person in charge of construction projects overseen by the Ministry of Defence, including those in areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia in the context of the war.
In late 2022, an investigation by the foundation of the late Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny alleged that Ivanov had profited from construction projects in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, now under Russian occupation.
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