Putin’s purge gathers pace with arrest of another top Russian official | World | News
Vladimir Putin’s purge of Russian elites appears to be gathering pace, after yet another top official was arrested by the security forces. In recent weeks, a number of key Kremlin officials have died after allegedly committing “suicide”.
Numerous others have been arrested, while powerful oligarchs have seen their businesses seized and nationalised by the state. Kremlin insiders and analysts believe Putin is on a personal mission to drum up funds to help finance his war in Ukraine. Long tolerant of corruption, the Russian leader is now targeting those he believes have taken too much and undermined his war effort in Ukraine.
The latest incident to send shivers down the spines of Russian elites took place on Thursday, when the former governor of the Tambov region Maxim Egorov was arrested on corruption charges.
He has been accused by prosectors of accepting a bribe “on an especially large scale” and is being investigated under Article 290 of the Criminal Code.
Searches have been carried out at several addresses associated with Egorov in Moscow and Tambov. The former governor will be transferred to the Russian capital later for further questioning by investigators.
Egorov was the governor of the Tambov region for three years from October 2021 until November 2024, when he resigned his position. In a farewell address to residents of the region, he implied that he was going to take up a new position at the federal level.
Sources told the Meduza website at the time that Egorov was being lined up to head the federal executive committee of United Russia – the party of power closely aligned with Putin.
Egorov was a close associate of the Secretary of the General Council of United Russia, Vladimir Yakushev – a former Minister of Construction.
July has been a particularly bad month for Russian elites, as Putin’s crackdown appears to be turning ever more violent and vicious.
Andrey Badalov, the vice-president of state-owned pipeline company Transneft, was the latest official to fall to his death from a balcony.
His apparent suicide was followed days later by that of Roman Starovoit, who allegedly shot himself in his car after his dismissal as minister for transport.
