Pro-war bloggers welcome arrest of Sergey Shoigu’s top deputy as Russia’s Defense Ministry purge continues
The dismissal of Russia’s longtime Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu in May 2024 was followed by an unprecedented purge of his deputies. Several high-ranking Russian military officials were arrested on corruption charges, while Shoigu himself was reappointed as Security Council secretary. Now, Shoigu’s closest associate, former First Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov, has been placed under house arrest on charges of establishing a criminal organization, money laundering, embezzlement, and bribery. The news thrilled Russia’s pro-war Telegram bloggers, who now believe that Shoigu’s political position is weaker than ever. Here’s what we know about the case against Ruslan Tsalikov.
The fall of Tsalikov
Former First Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov was arrested on March 4. The next day, a Moscow court placed him under house arrest on charges of establishing a criminal organization and money laundering, as well as 12 counts of embezzlement and two counts of bribery. He has reportedly pleaded not guilty.
Tsalikov’s arrest comes nearly two years after a sweeping purge of Russia’s Defense Ministry, coinciding with the May 2024 dismissal of its long-serving head, Sergey Shoigu. Three of Shoigu’s deputies were arrested on corruption charges, along with several other military officials. According to RBC, Tsalikov is the first among them to be charged with organizing a criminal group. For this alone, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
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Moscow’s Basmanny District Court placed Tsalikov under house arrest at the request of investigators — an unusual show of leniency, especially given the gravity of the charges against him. According to Kommersant, the remand hearing took place late at night, after the court had been closed to the public.
Anti-corruption cases abound
Media reports link Tsalikov to multiple criminal cases. According to Kommersant, he stands accused of involvement in fraud at the Russian military’s clothing and food supplier, Voentorg. Tsalikov oversaw the supplier, whose CEO was arrested in August 2024 for allegedly selling toiletries to the military at inflated prices. Further investigation uncovered damages from fraud exceeding six billion rubles (about $76.7 million today). Tsalikov is also accused of accepting bribes from defense contractors, specifically research companies, Kommersant writes.
Meanwhile, iStories reports that Tsalikov was arrested in connection with a fraud case against Piket, a company that allegedly supplied the military with defective bulletproof vests. Former Piket CEO Andrey Yesipov, who was sentenced to nine years in prison in November 2025, testified against Tsalikov, a source said.
According to Kommersant, Tsalikov allegedly accepted both cash and “expensive property” as bribes, and laundered money through investments in “large quantities” of residential and commercial real estate.
In 2022, investigators from Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation uncovered 1.1 billion rubles worth of commercial real estate in Moscow and land in the surrounding region belonging to Tsalikov’s four adult children. According to the investigative outlet Proekt, Tsalikov himself owns a mansion in the prestigious Rublyovka suburb, valued at three billion rubles as of 2021.
Shoigu’s right-hand man of 30 years
Ruslan Tsalikov began his career in his home region of North Ossetia. He earned a PhD in economics and, after working as a university instructor, went on to head the region’s Finance Ministry in 1990. Four years later, Tsalikov transferred to the Emergency Situations Ministry, then headed by Sergey Shoigu. Their careers have been inextricably linked ever since.
By 2007, Tsalikov was Shoigu’s first deputy. When Shoigu was appointed governor of the Moscow region in the spring of 2012, Tsalikov took up the position of vice governor. And when Shoigu was made defense minister later that same year, Tsalikov became his first deputy. He remained in this post until May 2024, when Shoigu was reappointed as Security Council secretary.
Although Shoigu didn’t bring his first deputy to the Security Council, he tried to protect him in other ways. After leaving the defense ministry, Tsalikov went into politics. In September 2024, he was elected to the regional parliament in Tuva — Shoigu’s home region, where he wielded considerable influence. Tsalikov then ran for Tuva’s Senate seat, but failed to get elected to the Federation Council.
The other deputies
Tsalikov is now the fourth former deputy defense minister to face corruption charges since Shoigu’s exit. However, he is the only one who has avoided jail time.
In July 2025, former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was sentenced to 13 years in prison on corruption charges, including embezzlement and money laundering. Now, he is awaiting trial on separate charges of accepting bribes amounting to 1.3 billion rubles (roughly $16 million today). Ivanov recently petitioned to deploy to the front in Ukraine; a Moscow court rejected the request, noting that “atonement” through frontline service is “a privilege, not an indulgence.”
Ex-Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov, arrested in July 2024, is currently in pre-trial detention. He stands accused of hiring a company under his control to install lighting systems at St. Petersburg’s Kirov Military Medical Academy at inflated prices.
Another Shoigu deputy, Pavel Popov, was arrested in August 2024 and remains in pre-trial detention. He stands accused of illegal enrichment through his work on the maintenance and development of Moscow’s Patriot Park. In 2025, another defendant in the case — the military theme park’s former director, Vyacheslav Akhmedov — was sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement.
Three of the four arrested deputies (Tsalikov, Ivanov, and Popov) rose through the Defense Ministry’s ranks under Shoigu. However, as Agentstvo notes, Bulgakov ascended to his post four years before Shoigu’s arrival, and was removed in 2022 — a year and a half before Shoigu himself. According to Agentstvo’s tally, only three deputy defense ministers who served under Shoigu still hold their positions: General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov, Viktor Goremykin, and Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.
‘Either let everyone go, or throw everyone in jail’
As Shoigu’s first deputy, Tsalikov oversaw legal and financial matters, as well as information policy. According to Proekt, he was personally responsible for cultivating Shoigu’s image. However, pro-war Telegram bloggers have long resented Tsalikov, blaming him for the Defense Ministry’s rampant use of euphemisms in its messaging about the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
While Z-bloggers welcomed Tsalikov’s arrest, they were upset that he was placed under house arrest instead of in pre-trial detention. Pointing to the recent jailing of Readovka founder Alexey Kostylev, propagandist Anastasia Kashevarova demanded consistency. “It’s clear that the man is elderly and seriously ill,” she wrote of Tsalikov. “However, we left Kostylev in a pre-trial detention center with a plate in his head and a paralyzed arm. […] Either let everyone go, or throw everyone in jail.”
Pro-war channels also noted that the case against Tsalikov weakens Shoigu, who has so far been spared during the ongoing purge of his team. BBC News Russian correspondent Ilya Barabanov agreed. “The closest member of the former minister’s team has been arrested,” he wrote. “This means that Sergey Shoigu’s own position — despite his current role as Security Council secretary — could be shaken at any moment.”