High-ranking Russian officials face arrests and unexplained fatalities amid internal crackdown

08 июля 2025 г., 23:18

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High-ranking Russian officials face arrests and unexplained fatalities amid internal crackdown

A wave of accusations of corruption, arrests and unexplained deaths among Russia’s top officials appears to be a silent internal purge.

Former Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Popov is now facing charges of fraud, abuse of office, forgery, and illegal arms possession—just as he lies hospitalized in critical condition. Meanwhile, another disgraced military official, Gen. Khalil Arslanov, was ordered to repay $18.5 million in damages after receiving a 17-year sentence for embezzlement and bribery.

The string of high-profile downfalls doesn’t end with arrests. Roman Starovoit, a former transport minister, was found dead from a gunshot wound hours after being dismissed by presidential decree, with investigators citing suicide as the leading theory. Just days earlier, Transneft vice president Andrei Badalov also reportedly “fell from a window” to his death—an echo of at least a dozen mysterious fatalities in Russia’s energy sector since 2022.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the incidents.