The former Russian general was jailed for seven years after being accused of taking bes.
Lt. Gen. Vadim Shamarin was arrested last year during the crackdown on corruption by the Ministry of Defense, which the Kremlin launched, and was accused of taking “particularly large bribes” by telecommunications companies.
The Russian Investigation Commission said it had acquired 36 million rubles (£331,000) worth of bes from the factory that produces communications equipment between 2019 and 2023, increasing the size of the state contracts awarded to the company in return.
Prior to his arrest, he served as deputy chief of the Army’s general staff and oversees signalling corps and military communications.
Russian TASS News Agency said Shamarin’s lawyers had said “In total, Shamarin was sentenced to seven years in the largest security prison, a seven-year ban on public services, and was stripped of the rank of the military.”
The court also confiscated 36 million rubles from him, a Ria Novosti news agency reported.
Shamarin is one of several senior Defense Ministry figures detained last year, including Deputy Minister Timur Ivanov and Lt. Gen. Yuri Kuznetsov, director of the Defense Ministry’s Personnel Bureau.
That came after Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected his long-term defense minister, Sergei Shoig, in May 2024.
He was replaced by Andrei Belusov, an economist with little military experience.
Experts suggested that the crackdown on corruption marked the Kremlin’s attempts to increase the efficiency of Russian forces.
