Russia Matters, 7/29/24

“There is a difference between the political use to which Putin is putting nuclear threats … and what we see in terms of the military nuclear establishment in Russia taking action,” Rose Gottemoeller said in an interview with BAS. “We do not see the readiness of Russian nuclear forces really being raised in any way, do not see any changes in the status of Russian nuclear forces that would give rise to alarm, [and we do not see] that they are getting closer to pursuing some kind of nuclear use scenario,” the former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control said. In the interview, Gottemoeller predicted a “long period when we’ll have very little trust or confidence in the Russians,” but argues that it’s still “important to think about nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons arms control as being associated with constraining and ensuring that an existential threat to humanity does not get out of hand.” The interview was published one day after Putin threatened to end Russia’s moratorium on the deployment of medium-range nuclear capable missiles, which Russia claims to be observing, if the U.S. deploys long-range precision missile systems in Germany.

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By Isabel van Brugen, Newsweek, 8/1/24

Russian President Vladimir Putin ramped up his war machine purge with new arrests this week.

Vladimir Pavlov, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s procurement arm, JSC Voentorg, was detained and accused of fraud, the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said, state-run news agency Tass reported on Thursday.

JSC Voentorg is a contractor of the Russian Defense Ministry and provides catering and laundry services for the Russian army.

According to Russian investigative site The Insider, Pavlov is a longstanding business partner of the former mistress of ex-Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who was removed from his post in May after holding the position for 12 years, in a surprise shake-up of the department.

Pavlov stands accused of the “theft of funds on an especially large scale from the budget of the Russian Federation during the execution of government contracts for the needs of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation,” Irina Volk, a representative for the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs told reporters on Thursday.

The official is accused of working with accomplices to purchase army toiletry bags at inflated prices between December 2019 and December 2022, and profiting from the scheme.

Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Defense Ministry for comment by email.

Separately on Thursday, Sergei Sukhov, a prominent manager of a military construction company, was arrested in an embezzlement case, RBC reported.

Previously, Andrei Belkov, the director of the Defense Ministry’s Military Construction Company, had been accused of abuse of power in the execution of a state defense order.

He was detained for purchasing a tomograph at an inflated price while he was the head of another military organization under the defense ministry—the Main Military Construction Directorate for Special Facilities, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported, citing security agency sources.

Belkov’s work was supervised by former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, who was arrested on April 23 on suspicion of taking bribes. Since Ivanov’s arrest, numerous top officials at the ministry and general staff have been detained by authorities.

A thorough investigation is being conducted into contracts concluded during Belkov’s leadership of the Defense Ministry’s Military Construction Company, as well as into his personal earnings and his nonofficial connections, Kommersant reported.

“There is a fierce cleanup underway,” a source close to the Kremlin and Defense Ministry told the independent [western funded] Russian news outlet Moscow Times in May. “There is still a long way to go before the purges are finished. More arrests await us.”

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Netflix is now carrying a mockumentary purporting to showcase the heroism of Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, which is led by the infamous neo-Nazi Andriy Biletsky. The film’s director has said the fake documentary will be privately screened for the Pentagon and US Senate.

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