“Plywood Minister”: what will happen to Shoigu after the arrest of his deputy

Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia Timur Ivanov was arrested and sent to a pre-trial detention center for two months, which called into question the reputation of Sergei Shoigu. Ivanov is suspected of receiving a particularly large bribe, although corruption in Russia is a common part of the Putin regime.

Political scientist Igor Reiterovich told 24 Channelthat the corruption version was allegedly specially created for the media. In Russia, people are not detained or tried for such things, they are not sent to a pre-trial detention center and serious charges are not brought forward, since everyone in power deals with these things.

Not too smart

A political scientist suggests that such events in Russia are similar to an internal struggle when spiders in the bank they begin to eat each other.

On the one hand, this is really a blow to Sergei Shoigu, although his influence after the beginning of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine and is constantly falling. Several times Shoigu found himself at the bottom. On the other hand, there is no one to replace him, and he is also one of the few whom Vladimir Putin trusts, because he is not too smart, but a good performer, said Igor Reiterovich.

He believes that perhaps a person has already been found who felt the strength to replace Shoigu. Or a struggle for resources has begun, because all the so-called Russian business and oligarchs live 90% exclusively on military orders, that is, on everything related to the war.

Since all opportunities to earn money in the West were “cut off,” Putin apparently gave the oligarchs the opportunity to earn money within the country on military orders, from which they can earn huge kickbacks, steal and just make money because their businesses will have work. And money will come from the budget for this.

Most likely, the struggle for these financial flows and the desire to intercept them led to the fact that Timur Ivanov ended up behind bars. Further, perhaps, several more people will be attracted – and as a result, the people who are responsible for fulfilling certain orders will simply change. And the money that went from the budget to Ivanov and all other persons associated with him will be redirected to others, the political scientist added.

Vladimir Putin < strong>a certain element of struggle is needed within to keep everyone on their toes and redistribute these flows. If they could provide him with documents about high treason, which is supposedly the key reason why Ivanov was imprisoned, Putin, who believes in various conspiracy theories, could fall for it and give the order to detain him.

A man of the wrong caliber

After February 24, 2022, Sergei Shoigu a lot lost in the eyes of Putin and everyone else who looked at him as a hypothetical successor.

The Russians came up with the nickname “plywood minister” and launched it into the information space, because it turned out that the mighty army he was talking about was not that powerful, but only knew how to “crush meat.” And when it comes to real combat clashes, it leaves much to be desired.

With its mass it can perform certain tasks, conduct aggressive war, but this is clearly not what they were promised. They were promised breakfast in the morning, a parade in Kyiv in the afternoon, and fireworks in the evening to mark the fact that they had already captured the whole of Ukraine. In fact, they have fireworks every day at oil refineries and this will continue in the future,” Reiterovich emphasized.

He added that in the future everything may end with Shoigu's resignation, but it is unlikely that this resignation in the future will be framed in a negative context.

Most likely, the Kremlin will say that Shoigu is leaving “for a well-deserved rest,” and they will appoint someone else in his place. “He is a person of the wrong caliber and is very close to Putin to blame and punish him for something,” said the political scientist.

However, he does not rule out that there could be another scenario – Shoigu has a heart attack, after which he simply will not be able to fulfill his duties. But no fight against corruption or punishment will be applied against him, since he is flesh and blood of the Putin regime.

Now to persecute Sergei Shoigu specifically – “shoot in your own foot.” Punishing those around him, further weakening them – all this may take place, but no one will specifically blame him for the scandal, although sooner or later he may lose his position and live out his life in his mansions, which he has built in dozens throughout Russia.

General Ivanov behind bars: what is known

• Russia's Investigative Committee said that Timur Ivanov was detained on suspicion of receiving a bribe in the amount of more than one million rubles.
• British intelligence calls Ivanov's arrest one of the most serious scandals of the last 10 years.
• Timur Ivanov was a high-ranking and public person, demonstrating his closeness to the top leadership of Russia, in particular, he was friends with Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov.
• By the way, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ivanov began to be responsible for the project to “restore” the occupied Mariupol destroyed by the Russians themselves.