Former Russian deputy defense minister Timur Ivanov attends a court hearing in Moscow, Russia, 24 March 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE/YURI KOCHETKOV
A Moscow court sentenced Russia’s former deputy defence minister Timur Ivanov to 13 years in a penal colony on charges of bribery and money laundering on Tuesday, independent media outlet Mediazona has reported.
Appointed deputy to then defence minister Sergey Shoigu in 2016, Ivanov oversaw major ministry-related construction projects. He was detained in April 2024, marking the start of a large-scale crackdown on several high-ranking defence officers who served under Shoigu.
Ivanov was subsequently arrested on charges of receiving a bribe of 1.185 billion rubles (€12.8 million) from Alexander Fomin, the co-founder of a construction company called Olimpsitistroy. According to the investigation, that was equivalent to the cost of building Ivanov’s house and making renovations to his estate in the centre of Moscow.
Ivanov was found guilty of theft on a particularly large scale and money laundering by an organised group on a particularly large scale. He was also stripped of his state awards and fined 100 million rubles (€1.08 million), and his assets were confiscated by the state.
Anton Filatov, Ivanov’s former assistant, for whom the prosecution had sought a 14-year sentence, was given 12.5 years in prison.
Named by Forbes as one of the richest officials in Russia’s security structures in 2019, Ivanov has been under US, UK and EU sanctions and a travel ban since 2022 for his role in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Ivanov faced fresh charges in October when he was accused of embezzling over 3 billion rubles (€32.4 million) from Interkommerts Bank. A second charge related to his having wasted over 200 million rubles (€2.2 million) when buying two vessels to operate the Kerch ferry crossing between annexed Crimea and southern Russia.
Yet another criminal case was opened against Ivanov in May, this time for accepting a bribe of over 152 million rubles (€1.6 million) from Fomin. According to state-owned news agency TASS, that case is due to come to court by the autumn.