Russian MOD Purges Hit Fever Pitch, as Belousov Scythes Corruption – Simplicius
Sat 7:23 am +01:00, 3 Aug 2024 The Russian corruption purges have reached new heights. Several more big figures have been arrested this week. On July 26, it was ex-Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov, who headed the Russian Logistics and Transport wing of the Armed Forces. He was arrested on corruption charges of large-scale embezzlement stemming from his handling of food supplies to the military. It’s alleged to be a typical scheme, where favorable contracts were given to his own “in house” vendors in exchange for favors and kickbacks. The food delivered to the servicemen was considered subpar. In particular, it’s said he supplied food to Russian servicemen in the Syria campaign which was so bad, many troops used their own money to buy local food instead. This, by the way, is the same complaint once lodged against Prigozhin.
But what was most disturbing was that in Bulgakov’s home, a series of quite grandiosely self-aggrandizing portraits were recovered by the FSB: In each case, who is centered but Shoigu and what some are deeming his “gang of underlings”. They can be identified as follows: 1. Ex-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who himself was removed upon the start of Putin’s new term. 2. First Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov, who resigned a few months ago. 3. Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, famously arrested and imprisoned last month, also for large-scale embezzling. 4. Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Yuri Sadovenko, who was dismissed from office for an unspecified reason in May, around the same time Tsalikov resigned. 5. Deputy Defense Minister Tatyana Shevtsova, who was also removed recently and was suspected of various things, though nothing concrete has turned up, with claims she was Shoigu’s personal assistant. 6. Deputy Defense Minister General Nikolai Pankov, dismissed from office in June. 7. Deputy Defense Minister Army General Pavel Popov, likewise dismissed with the rest of the June group. 8. Bulgakov himself, who owned the paintings above. The others in the photo who have not suffered any purges thus far, are Alexander Fomin, between 3 and 6 above, Roscosmos head Yuri Borisov, next to 8, and Gerasimov next to him. You can see many of the same faces reprise their roles in the other paintings. Now, as of July 31, news broke that Director of the Department of Military Property of the Ministry of Defense Mikhail Sapunov has been removed from his post:
If things weren’t “intriguing” enough, a businessman named Igor Kotelnikov who was scooped up in the dragnet earlier, and who had ties to the Bulgakov case, died in pre-trial detention from an alleged “blood clot”: Then, Vladimir Pavlov, head of Voentorg JSC—which is the main contractor for various logistical supplies to the Russian Armed Forces—was also just arrested:
Keep in mind, previously Lt General Kuznetsov and Major General Ivan Popov were likewise booked for corruption or fraud. Last month, another general named Magomed Khandayev also died, which Western press immediately tied to the ongoing purges and intrigues: As can be seen above, he was reportedly a direct subordinate to now disgraced Timur Ivanov, although his linking by Western press to the ongoing investigations is uncorroborated and remains one of the few conjectural or exaggerated ties to this story. However, given that he did work in the Main Directorate of Special Construction for the military, which is one of the areas likely linked to the various embezzlement schemes, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he was in fact caught up in the ongoing firestorm. In almost every case, the above detained former deputies were involved in the logistics and supply to the Russian army, with Bulgakov being head of the department, and Tatiana Shevtsvova the accountant for the group. Though the scale of the purges is off the charts, they are obviously being taken with great satisfaction by most Russian military observers, as a good sign of progress—one analyst noting:
But many are rightfully angry, given the vast problems in supplies—from body armor, to food and drink, ammo, etc.—that existed from the start. Famed correspondent Alexander Kharchenko vents:
But the biggest bombshell of all, was a report in July wherein Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Mikhail Delyagin announced that 11 trillion Rubles had been stolen in the Russian MOD under Sergei Shoigu’s tenure: But hold your horses—it’s not exactly as it seems. Two main points: Firstly, he is not outright stating that Shoigu stole ₽11 trillion Rubles worth of funds himself—which is a massive $100 billion USD, equivalent to one full year’s of the Russian defense budget—but rather that it happened during his tenure. As you can see, it’s one stop away from direct accusation, for which there is obviously no evidence at this time. Naturally, this is precisely the interpretation pro-Western propagandists latched on to. Secondly: this was not some kind of official Duma investigation, but rather one deputy making a statement based on the findings of a seemingly unofficial “mathematician”. Furthermore, Delyagin is a known muckraker of sorts, who has even previously used the 6th columnist VChk-OGPU channel as source in his online complaints. This channel’s infamous founder Alexander Gusov had been arrested by FSB last year for blackmailing and extorting citizens in order to get “dirt” for his channel’s TMZ-style hit pieces on various Russian political figures. VChk-OGPU is a favorite source amongst all 5th and 6th columnist and pro-UA channels—although that’s not to say it’s entirely fake, as it does occasionally dig up accurate info. But the point is to convey that Delyagin is a bit of an agitator in this regard, though that’s not to say his information is necessarily wrong, but rather that it’s not quite as official as it seems, and to my knowledge, has not been corroborated anywhere. Here’s what he himself wrote on his TG channel previously, to give an idea of his sentiments and leanings:
So, he states the widely hated Serdyukov of the infamous Serdyukov Reforms actually managed to successfully disrupt the bureaucracy at the top of the armed forces. But Shoigu, according to him, fostered a decadent bureaucratic “swamp”, which Belousov is now faced with dismantling. But if you want to get a measure of the man yourself, here’s an interview from about two months ago where he speaks on many of these topics: In general, he seems to be genuine in his quest to uncover the Defense Ministry’s deeply-buried rot. Many pro-UA commentators now believe that “the walls are closing in on Shoigu”, and slowly but surely, the corruption dragnet is leading to him at the top of the pyramid. It’s difficult to say what if any involvement he had in the various kickback schemes his subordinates so freely employed to enrich themselves, but one thing I’ll say is that on a purely theoretical basis, if you were in Putin’s shoes and constructing a massive takedown operation of the MOD, you would naturally save the top guy for last. The reason is, if you take him down first, there is chance for a coup or some military action being taken against you, given that all his ‘lieutenants’—to use mafia jargon—would assume they’re next, and immediately begin plotting a counterattack on his behalf. But if you gradually take the foundation out from under the chief first, you weaken his power base, and essentially deprive him of any ability to counteract your move for when the time actually comes to take him down. That being said, Shoigu himself may merely have been running a loose ship and turning a blind eye to, or may have been outright oblivious of, the shark-like feeding frenzy of corruption happening beneath him—which still does not altogether redound well on him, of course, even if it turns out he’s innocent of any direct participation in the schemes himself. In general, it’s an unprecedented turn of events, with such a large claque of logistics-related deputy ministers and generals being rounded up. Though it is extremely revealing of Russia’s past failings and shortcomings, it also bodes well for the future, given that Belousov seems to truly embody the great scythe-wielding revenant of justice and reform many expected him to be. And by the way, before anyone thinks Russia is unique, the U.S. Department of Defense has no less corruption, and likely much more. It’s just that in the U.S., such corruption is institutionalized and instrumentalized in a more glossily sophisticated and quasi-legal way. What do you think those $52,000 trash cans from Boeing were all about? Someone was certainly getting kickbacks for that. Or how about the trillions the Pentagon regularly “loses” or fails to account for in various ways? Someone should be getting arrested for that, but the fact that they don’t somehow gives the U.S. a more virtuous gleam, whereas the country actually uprooting its corruption looks all the worse for it. Additionally, for those who may ask: could this Prigozhin was right about everything? I say the following, which I have articulated before: Prigozhin was a very multifaceted, dynamic, and complex figure, learned in the arts of subterfuge and deception, who knew how to exploit genuineissues for his own personal gain. Thus, the fact that he played to our sympathies by seizing upon real issues, then vastly embellishing and taking advantage of them to grow his own brand, does not mean he himself was not guilty of all the same accusations. We already know, as mentioned, he used the same cheap food scam to bilk the Russian taxpayers out of billions via state contracts with his Concord Catering company.
When there’s a war of gangster against gangster, it doesn’t mean the charismatic and ‘likeable’ gangster who demonstrates genuine patriotic fervor is automatically in the right. That being said, as stupid as it may sound, Prigozhin may have very well have given his life—to some extent, at least, and whether knowingly or inadvertently—for the greater cause of disrupting the calcified remnants of post-Soviet corruption in the Russian MOD’s ranks. In one of his final on-screen appearances, captured by veteran correspondent Patrick Lancaster as Prigozhin’s dark SUV drove away from a frenzied Rostov crowd not long after seizing the town by force, Prigozhin intimated that the point was to “reinvigorate” or “energize” the ‘system’, and he felt he succeeded; he confirmed this in later online posts, as well: It’s not inconceivable that his little historic dust-up with the MOD scared enough high level players—most notably Putin himself—into taking immediate action toward reforming the whole system from the ground up. And thus, in some ways, he fulfilled both his incompatible roles as grifter and savior in one, with us left to forever wonder whether it was as planned, or just another opportunistic exploit from the great chameleon and master of theatrics himself. In semi-related news, Britain fell off the top 10 of the world’s top manufacturing powers list:
This was recently announced by Make UK, as reported by the Times newspaper. But what’s most remarkable is these are 2022 figures, when Russia was still in a huge post-Covid slump, battered down by new sanctions stemming from the SMO launch. As of now, Russia’s placement is likely even much higher, as its industries have only begun to truly churn after 2022. Of course, much of Russia’s top placement is owed to its military manufacturing given that, unlike most of the other names in the top 10, little exists of recognizable brand names for consumer markets that is manufactured in Russia. Everyone knows the ‘Made in Mexico’ label, likewise most can point to famous cars made in Italy, South Korea (Kia and Hyundai), Germany, etc. This certainly is something that must change in the future as Russia builds up its wealth, resources, and societal capital. Meanwhile, only months after reportedly being granted dozens of billions by the Biden admin’s CHIPS Act, Intel has now announced a massive layoff of 15,000 workers:
And as of this writing, both the U.S. and Japanese stock markets are crashing, with $2.9 trillion reportedly wiped out from U.S. indices: In fact, the Nikkei is down 16% in the past three weeks. The U.S. 10 year treasury notes also crashed to the lowest in six months: As I understand it, people are transfering their money en masse to the 10y bonds due to the crashing stock prices, and this is driving down the treasury yields. Given that jobs reports were again revised into the negative recently, as well as unemployment ticking upwards, many experts now expect an official recession in the future. In short, buckle up—as I predicted, economic collapse will be unleashed onto Trump’s term, if he wins. Your support is invaluable. If you enjoyed the read, I would greatly appreciate if you subscribed to a monthly/yearly pledge to support my work, so that I may continue providing you with detailed, incisive reports like this one.
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