Russia detains senior defence official over suspected fraud amid corruption crackdown

State news agency RIA said other employees of the park had also been detained and were being interrogated.

At least a dozen people have now been caught up in the biggest wave of corruption scandals to hit the Russian military and defence establishment for years.

It began on April 23 with the arrest of Timur Ivanov, a deputy defence minister accused of taking bribes from a construction company. Others arrested since then include an army major general and the deputy head of the general staff, as well as businessmen suspected of paying bribes.

The investigations signal a serious effort by the Kremlin to stamp out corruption in the military as its war in Ukraine approaches the two-and-a-half-year mark.

In May, soon after the first arrests, President Vladimir Putin unexpectedly removed long-serving defence minister Sergei Shoigu and replaced him with economist Andrei Belousov in what was widely seen as a bid to ensure tighter management of Russia’s vast defence budget and eliminate waste and corruption.