Russian President Vladimir Putin's unexpected upheaval of his Defense Ministry during a time of war might be related to a leak of nuclear secrets.
Putin on Sunday fired Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and assigned him to be secretary of Russia's Security Council. Shoigu was replaced by Andrei Belousov, an economist and former deputy prime minister who has no military background.
Russia's Defense Ministry has been caught up in a corruption scandal in which at least five people reportedly have been arrested, including Deputy Minister Timur Ivanov and Lt. Gen. Yuri Kuznetsov, the ministry's head of personnel.
Two weeks before Shoigu was fired, Ivanov and another deputy minister, Ruslan Tsalikov, had been accused of leaking nuclear secrets and could be facing treason charges, Newsweek reported Tuesday, citing an April 29 post on X by Igor Sushko, executive director of the Wind of Change Research Group.
Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian dissident in exile, made the same allegation April 30 in a YouTube video.
"In contravention of all top-secret protocols, Tsalikov and Ivanov provided access to secret documents about Russia's nuclear shelf, among other things, to persons who did not have any level of security clearance," Osechkin said in the video, according to Newsweek.
In a post Tuesday on Telegram, Osechkin said three of Shoigu's deputies, including Tsalikov, were said to have resigned at least a week before their boss was fired, Newsweek reported. Tsalikov and Alexey Krivoruchko backdated their resignations to May 9, according to Sushko, despite signing their letters of resignation Monday.
Two other deputy ministers reportedly resigned before Shoigu's departure and Osechkin claimed deputy finance minister Tatyana Shevtsova also resigned, but the timing of her resignation was not known, according to Newsweek.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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