1/ What do jewelry, cash, antiques, watches, mansions and Jennifer Lopez have in common? They've all been sought after by corrupt Russian military officials. In this second 🧵 in a series, I'll look at high-level corruption among Russia's military elite.
3/ Corruption and incompetence have been hallmarks of Russian generalship for centuries. At the 1854 Battle of the Alma, Lt Gen Vasily Kiryakov got drunk on champagne and ordered his regiment to fire on what he thought was the French cavalry. It was actually his own Kiev Hussars.
4/ The defeated Russian commander, Prince Alexander Menshikov, fled from the victorious Allies. The French later discovered in his carriage "letters from the Tsar, 50,000 francs, pornographic French novels, the general’s boots and some ladies’ underwear."
5/ Corruption at all levels persisted through the Soviet period, before exploding into open view after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Yeltsin era was dominated by so-called "wild" or "gangster" capitalism, in which anything and everything was for sale - at the right price.
6/ The 1990s were the high-water mark for so-called 'general thieves' in Russia, when the military budget was plundered to an unbelievable extent - losses were estimated at over $2 billion. Over 100 generals and admirals were prosecuted.
7/ The prize almost certainly has to go to General Georgy Oleinik, who was jailed in 2002 for illegally transferring $450 million to Ukraine as payment for materials that were never delivered. Most of the money was moved before the contract had even been signed.
8/ This kind of scam has been common at high levels in Russia. Another spectacular case was that of Nikolai Ryabykh, head of the Defence Ministry's facilities department, who was convicted in 2016 with businessman Alexander Elkin for a 118 million ruble contract fraud.
9/ Elkin, Ryabykh and others had billed the ministry for work that was never done. The money was simply stolen. Where did it go? In Elkin's case, he was arrested the day before his 50th birthday, for which he had organised a huge birthday party likely costing millions of rubles.
10/ The party included hiring a palace, antique tablecloths and curtains, gilded candelabra on the tables, fireworks and meeting guests with artists dressed as in the form of royal lackeys. Jennifer Lopez was reportedly hired to give a private performance.
11/ Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was among Elkin's guests. A few months later, Russian police raided the 13-room luxury Moscow apartment of Yevgeniya Vasileyva, a glamorous 33-year-old blonde. They were surprised to discover Serdyukov was also there, dressed in a bathrobe.
12/ Vasileyva's apartment contained over $3 million in jewelry, cash, antiques and 19th-century artwork which had been "borrowed" from the museum of the Russian Defence Ministry. She was duly put under house arrest while investigations continued.
13/ Even for Russia, this was too big a scandal to overlook. The trail led back to Serdyukov, who served both as the Defence Minister and also chair of Oboronservis, a giant facilities company. Vasileyva was a director of the company, despite her lack of obvious qualifications.
14/ Serdyukov already had a towering reputation for corruption: "he's stolen everything that isn't nailed down", as one subordinate said afterwards. He had appointed a series of attractive young women, dubbed "the Amazons" or "the ladies' battalion", to senior positions.
15/ One such was an aspiring poet named Marina Chubkina, a 31-year-old former TV presenter and aspiring poet. She was given a rank equivalent to major general and was placed in charge of the maintenance of Russian chemical and nuclear facilities.
16/ Serdyukov was fired by Vladimir Putin a few weeks later. He was accused of a variety of scams, but was charged only with "negligence" for ordering the army to build a road from a village to a private country residence. He was amnestied by Putin in 2014.
17/ In all, the corruption scandals surrounding Serdyukov were reported to have cost the Russian government at least 3 billion rubles ($60 million) - and that was likely the tip of the iceberg. It's unlikely that much if any of the money was recovered.
18/ Putin replaced Serdyukov with Sergei Shoigu, previously Russia's minister for emergencies, in 2012. Shoigu - who is one of the architects of the present war in Ukraine - was brought in as a supposedly clean pair of hands.
19/ However, only three years later the Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny's organisation exposed Shoigu as the likely owner of an $18 million luxury mansion outside Moscow. It's registered in the name of his 18-year-old daughter. Shoigu's annual salary is $120,000.
20/ And so it goes. Far from improving under Shoigu's "clean hands", Russia's problem of military corruption has got even worse since Serdyukov's sacking a decade ago, according to the Russian government itself.
21/ In the next thread in this series, I'll look at the social and organisational factors behind the endemic corruption in Russia's armed forces, and highlight the consequences for its military effectiveness. /end
1/ Russian soldiers at the front lines in Ukraine are unable to obtain vital electrical supplies. A Russian warblogger appeals for help to overcome what he calls "greed and bureaucracy", which also illustrates the Russian army's inability to provide basic equipment. ⬇️
2/ 'Chronicles of the SVO communications' writes:
"We, military signalmen, have a simple and very difficult front — every day we fight not only against electronic warfare and the weather, but also against a banal shortage: equipment, cable, splitters, power, consumables."
3/ "A network is not built out of thin air, and communication in a dugout will not appear if you only have duct tape and a prayer. We constantly resort to the help of volunteers who pull this work out literally by the skin of their teeth."
1/ The Russian army has issued an appeal for volunteers to provide supplies to help the forthcoming Zapad-2025 military exercise, illustrating a lack of basic resources. Russian warbloggers aren't impressed and call it "sad". ⬇️
2/ Russia's regular Zapad military exercise with Belarus is going ahead this autumn for the first time since 2021, mostly taking place on Belarussian soil. The 2023 exercise was cancelled, and it's likely that the scale of the 2025 exercise will be limited due to the ongoing war.
3/ An appeal by the Combined Arms Army of the 2nd Leningrad Military District has illustrated the shortage of resources currently faced by the Russian military. A message apparently circulated on Telegram reads:
1/ A recent video of a Russian soldier, likely in his 70s, hobbling to the front line in Ukraine reflects how Russia's army is becoming increasingly elderly. "Now all the personnel are grandfathers ... they are being mowed down," say Russian soldiers. ⬇️
2/ An investigation by the independent Russian news outlet Verstka highlights the changing age profile of the Russian army. Soldiers on the front line have recorded and spoken about the increasing number of "grandfathers" – soldiers over 50s – their units are receiving.
3/ The recruitment of the elderly is being driven by huge casualties. One soldier serving in the Donetsk region says: "Since the beginning of the summer [of 2024], our regiment has lost about half its men, 200s and 300, [killed and wounded] near Chasiv Yar, roughly 500 people."
1/ Workers at the giant KAMAZ vehicle plant in Naberezhnye Chelny, Russia, have been banned from bringing in purchased food due to fears of being poisoned by Ukrainians. The move likely reflects increasing official paranoia about Ukrainian sabotage attacks deep inside Russia. ⬇️
2/ The Vesti KAMAZ newspaper reports: "At the facilities of PJSC KAMAZ in Naberezhnye Chelny, a temporary ban on bringing in food products has been introduced by order on ensuring biological and chemical safety of workers."
3/ "Until this measure is cancelled, which will be announced by a separate order, KAMAZ workers are not allowed to bring in either ordered or store-bought food into the buildings, with the exception of containers with home-cooked food and for personal consumption.
1/ A recent commentary about the Russian army's political officers has struck a chord with frontline officers. They say the army frequently appoints "the most useless person" in a unit – "alcoholics and morons" – who do little to help with morale. ⬇️
2/ Russian warblogger Svyatoslav Golikov reports on positive reaction to the commentary which he published last week, in which he criticised the "stupid and unnecessary" work that political officers do, which he says is severely disconnected from the realities of the front line.
3/ He argues that the political cadre's leadership "not only does not see the real problems with the conduct of military-political work and the moral and psychological state of the personnel of our troops, but also categorically does not want to see them."
1/ Poor-quality and 'fake' electronic warfare equipment is costing the lives of Russian soldiers, say angry Russian warbloggers. A gory video shows a Russian soldier on an ATV being eviscerated by a Ukrainian drone despite the presence of what is said to be a fake EW system. ⬇️
2/ The extremely graphic video shows two soldiers on an all-terrain vehicle which has a frontally mounted EW system with four prominent antennas. It is of no benefit to them, as a drone hits the driver in the chest, decapitating and eviscerating him.
3/ The provision of EW systems is often organised by soldiers themselves from their own salaries, or by volunteers, as the Russian MOD fails to provide men with essential equipment. However, warbloggers say that EW manufacturers rip off soldiers with poor-quality systems.