Ministry of Defense: The trial of the former head of the Main Personnel Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense has begun. He is accused of accepting an 80 million ruble bribe. 

The case of the former head of the Main Personnel Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant General Yuri Kuznetsov and a Krasnodar entrepreneur Levy Martirosyan being considered in a military court in Moscow.

According to investigators, Martirosyan, in gratitude for government contracts for hotel services at the Shtemenko Krasnodar Higher Military School (KVVU) worth over 372 million rubles, transferred a plot of land and a house in Krasnodar, worth a total of 80,1 million rubles, to Kuznetsov's wife.

Kuznetsov and Martirosyan are accused of receiving and giving a bribe on an especially large scale, respectively. Both plead not guilty. Kuznetsov previously wrote letter to Putin, calling himself an "honest man."

In Russia, criminal cases of corruption are being opened one after another against high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defense. For example, recently detained Ruslan Tsalikov, former First Deputy Minister of Defense Sergei ShoiguAnother former deputy of Shoigu Timur Ivanov for embezzlement of budget funds in the summer of 2025 sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Photo: Kommersant