Many heard the name of the functionary for the first time in connection with the high-profile arrest in the case of a large bribe. How did Ivanov manage to “inherit” before he ended up in a pre-trial detention center?
On Tuesday, April 22, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Timur Ivanov was detained in Moscow. The interest of the police in a functionary of this level expectedly caused a wide resonance. Mainly people are trying to understand why Ivanov aroused the interest of investigators, because for a wide audience he was not a noticeable figure.
However, the trail of scandals behind the deputy lasted for quite a long time and, perhaps, it was because of it that the investigators had questions about the income of the “effective manager.”
Fans of gossip columns might actually have heard about Ivanov because of his wife. But we are getting a little ahead of ourselves. Where did the deputy minister come from? According to the official biography, which has not disappeared from the Ministry of Defense website, he was born in 1975, graduated from Moscow State University. Lomonosov in 1997, and then “disappeared” for 12 years in the line “worked at enterprises of the country’s fuel and energy complex.”
If we recall in more detail about this period until 2012, then the future Deputy Minister of Defense then worked in the private sector. He started with banking, then worked with the securities market, until he finally ended up in the department of construction of nuclear projects of the Ministry of Atomic Energy.
But the main thing that happened in these “dark” years is that Ivanov married the “socialite” Svetlana Maniovich, who, after a long division of property with her ex-husband, “printing tycoon” Mikhail Maniovich, turned out to be an extremely rich and successful Moscow businesswoman, owner of Metropol Fashion Group .
Timur already had a marriage behind him by that time. What also added piquancy was the fact that the then “young and promising” official began his relationship with Svetlana when she was still married.
“I found out that my wife had a lover long before she left me.” I knew this guy, he came to my house with his wife. His wife is the daughter of a former deputy minister of atomic energy. Nice young girl… A couple of kids. I’ll tell you even more. When I found out about his affair with Svetlana, I met with him. I asked, “What are you doing? You have two small children! My wife demands a minimum of 50 thousand income per month!” Spletnik quotes Maniovich as giving a moral portrait of Ivanov.
It may seem that at that moment Ivanov pulled out a “golden” ticket. In addition to the fact that his romance was written about in the gossip columns of that time, his career also took off – in 2012 he met “the main man of his life,” Sergei Shoigu. Ivanov becomes Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Moscow Region when the future Minister of Defense was the governor of the region – this was shortly before his appointment to his current post.
Ivanov came to the Ministry of Defense for Shoigu – a year later, to the position of general director of JSC Oboronstroy, and rose to deputy by 2016.
He received the high post after completing one of the largest projects of the Ministry of Defense of the last two decades – the Patriot Park. The ceremony of laying the first stone took place in 2014, and the first events on its territory began to be held in 2015, just when Ivanov was heading Oboronstroy JSC.
By the way, due to his connection with Patriot Park, Timur Ivanov became the subject of dozens of mocking posts on social networks several years ago. In 2020, when the Main Temple of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation was completed and it was discussed what would be exhibited there, it was this deputy minister who caused a scandal because a representative of the department “admired Hitler’s things.”
To be fair, he did this in a historical context, calling it “relics,” but meaning, of course, “valuable exhibits.”
– The same installations are located directly in the “Memory Road”, because there are real relics there. There are unique things there, including Hitler’s costume, which is still preserved. There’s Hitler’s cap there,” Ivanov said.
It is worth noting that the reason for the detention of the deputy minister may also be the stories that have come to light from those times. According to Izvestia, the official was detained for quite a long time due to possible “abuses” during the implementation of construction contracts of the Ministry of Defense.
However, Ivanov was taken into custody not after discussing construction projects of the Ministry of Defense or the caps of Nazi criminals: a scandal erupted online over his wife, Svetlana. Foreign agency resources, where compliance with European sanctions is monitored more strictly than local customs officers, found that the deputy minister’s wife had a luxurious holiday abroad even after the start of the SVO.
It has been known for a long time that the Ivanovs are not poor; by 2019, Forbes magazine ranked Ivanov in first place in the ranking of the country’s wealthiest security officials. At the same time, one detail is interesting: the income of the deputy minister himself was calculated as 13.6 million rubles – a barely noticeable trifle against the background of his family’s total annual income of 136.7 million.
There was, however, a detail – Svetlana registered a fabulous income of 123 million rubles only in 2019. And in other years everything is “modest” – no more than 10 million rubles annually. This raises even more questions: only according to official declarations, the Ivanovs owned an entire fleet of vehicles and a small town of real estate.
For example, in 2019 they declared several cars, including Mercedes-Benz, Bentley, Aston Martin, Hummer and a couple of Harley-Davidson motorcycles – only the latter are valued at more than 4 million rubles. The apartments are absolutely beautiful: there is real estate in Moscow, a residential building with an area of 1,500 square meters, and suddenly an apartment in Mexico for one of the children.
The publication “Project” (recognized as an undesirable organization in the Russian Federation) in 2019 accused the couple of also hiding plots in Rublyovka and other locations for hundreds of millions of rubles.
New reports revealed a little more details of the deputy minister’s luxurious vacation in the French resort of Saint-Tropez. For example, it was stated that in 2017 alone, the already appointed deputy minister contributed 18.5 million rubles to the French economy during his vacation. The couple rented a Mangueira villa for 170 thousand euros, a yacht for 93 thousand. In addition, Ivanova and his wife were spotted driving a rare Rolls Royce, which was delivered from Luxembourg – tens of thousands of euros more. It’s funny, but this is less than the family earned for the entire 2019 – according to the latest declaration, the total family income is just over 20 million. Over the five years of their French travels, the family paid out 850 thousand euros – almost 85 million rubles.
By the way, the staggering income of 2018 may have been declared so that there would be no unnecessary questions and Ivanov would not spoil the holiday. Svetlana then celebrated her anniversary in Istanbul. The asking price for one “party” is 13 million rubles, for which fifty guests vacationed on boats and in rich restaurants.
However, Svetlana always knew how to celebrate birthdays. For example, in 2016, Butusov, Kutsenko and Meladze performed at her celebration of life at the Imperial Yacht Club of Moscow.
They also counted the “tchotchkes” that the family of a military man, who had never served in the army for a day, delighted themselves with: Svetlana only has several millions of dresses and diamonds from famous brands and not rubles, but the beautiful life does not end there. The couple is also very fond of antiques; for example, glass birds for the collection alone cost 7,000 euros.
Of course, spouses, both before and now, can say that they earned everything before they entered the civil service (it’s hard to believe, but they can). But this does not cancel the main accusation – even sanctions could not dissuade Ivanov’s wife from “European-style” luxury.
The deputy minister was included in the European “hit list” along with his colleagues after the start of the SVO, but the conflict, apparently, did not in any way affect the “socialite” Svetlana: photographs of her walking around Paris in furs. A divorce helped her in this: Svetlana and Timur allegedly got a fictitious divorce, which allowed the businesswoman to move around Europe calmly.
By the way, this is not the first time that questions about Ivanov’s loyalty to the country in whose Ministry of Defense he works have arisen. In 2020, there were rumors that the children of Timur and Svetlana had acquired Israeli citizenship.
Given this, it is not surprising that, according to sources in law enforcement agencies, Ivanov was being watched for a long time. Although the news about his detention came suddenly: even in the afternoon, the deputy minister appeared in a video recording of a meeting of the ministry board, published on the same day.
There was also a surprise for Ivanov: RBC clarified that he was detained at about 17:00 in his own office at the Ministry.
As Izvestia reported, the FSB and the Investigative Committee had been “looking” at Ivanov for “more than one month”; Lenta.ru’s source stated that they had been “digging” for him for as many as five years. The media report that not only Timur was detained, but several other defendants who may be involved in the transfer of money.
As was mentioned, the story may be connected with a wide variety of abuses by Ivanov in office, but so far the essence of the accusations is trivial – a bribe. The case was initiated under Part 6 of Art. 290 of the Criminal Code (especially large size). Ivanov was paid, as specified by the Investigative Committee, for “providing services of a property nature” during contracting and subcontracting work for the needs of the Ministry of Defense.”
Together with Ivanov, a certain Sergei Borodina, a comrade of the deputy minister, went under arrest; he is accused of intermediary in the transfer of a bribe.
Ivanov did not admit guilt, but it seems that his wife will be waiting for him at French resorts for a long time: he faces up to 15 years in prison.
