https://www.newsweek.com/vladimir-putin-fires-military-generals-russia-launches-biggest-military-1093472
Vladimir Putin Fires Military Generals as Russia Launches Biggest Military Exercises in Four Decades
By Cristina Maza On 8/28/18 at 2:53 PM EDT
Russian President Vladimir Putin fired 15 Russian generals on Tuesday as the country prepares to launch its biggest war games in over four decades. Among those fired were Vladlen Aksenov, the deputy minister of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, and Sergei Koryuchin, head of federal penitentiary services in Russia's Omsk region.
Generals in Russia are often fired in groups, experts note. Eleven generals were fired in April 2018, and other groups were let go in 2016 and 2017. During previous rounds of dismissals, some officials were arrested for corruption, and this week's case was no different. At least one general, Mikhail Begun, the minister of emergency situations in Russia's Tomsk region, was also apprehended on corruption charges for allegedly taking bribes. Experts say they suspect more arrests could soon be carried out.
"The reasons why generals are fired vary, and in years past they've mixed the reasons why any particular guy is let go: lost a bureaucratic struggle; the leadership doesn't want a guy to become too ensconced in a position and turn it into a fiefdom; actual policy differences; or unapproved corruption," Yuval Weber, a Russia expert at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School and DMGS-Kennan Institute Fellow at the Wilson Center, in Washington, D.C., told Newsweek. "On the last point, no one at the top is clean but sometimes an official can go too far. When someone loses a bureaucratic struggle, evidence of corruption can also be found, so it's hard to tell the story or its causality without digging in deeper."
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