Vladimir Putin has continued his Kremlin reshuffle by ousting a military general, who was stripped from his bed and arrested by armed police in the early hours of the morning.
Officers in balaclavas used crowbars to smash their way into the home of Lt-Gen Yuri Kuznetsov’s home at 5am, dragging him out of bed and arresting on “criminal charges over state secrets”.
The leader of the Russian Defense Ministry’s personnel official was then “taken away for interrogation” in the latest of Putin’s cabinet purge. His arrest, however, is reportedly in connection with his previous job guarding military state secrets.
Raids of his home reportedly uncovered the equivalent of £875,000 cash in rubles and other foreign currency, as well as “gold coins, collectible watches and luxury items”.
Telegram channel VChK-OGPU said: “Kuznetsov was detained in his own bed. Counterintelligence officers came for the general fully armed and acted deliberately and harshly.
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“At about 5am on May 13, the security forces in balaclavas and with crowbars ‘took out’ the gates and windows in [his] mansion in Istra district.”
Officials claim he “received a bribe from representatives of commercial structures for certain actions in their favour” between 2021 and 2023, during which time his job was to safeguard state secrets.
State news outlet Tass reported that Kuznetsov is being investigated by the main military branch of the Investigative Committee, which has already given the court the conditions of his detention.
Kuznetsov’s wife has also been brought in for questioning, according to a source speaking to Tass, as she previously worked in the Committee on Military-Technical Cooperation with Foreign States, and the Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces.
Rybar, a military channel on Telegram, said: “Purges have begun in the Ministry of Defence, including in relation to people who were somehow soiled in unpleasant episodes.”
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