December 14, 2025: Russia recently sought to suppress some very bad news. This involved Russian soldiers shooting themselves, or each other in non-vital areas. Such injuries result in several hundred thousand dollars in compensation payments per man. Russian anti-corruption investigators found that at least three dozen members of an elite Guards air assault brigade were involved in this scam which could have earned them nearly $2.5 million. The accused blamed it all on low morale. The brigade has been in combat too long and many soldiers were worn out. An increasing number refused to fight. Officers can shoot reluctant soldiers, but the officers are also suffering from poor morale and unwillingness to get their troops involved in heavy combat. The brigade was in bad shape. There were not enough supplies reaching, including basics like food and drinkable water. This was another side effect of drone warfare. Both sides used drones to cut enemy supply lines and often succeeded. The difference is that the Ukrai

This is not a unique situation. Last year a Russian deputy defense minister was arrested for corruption. Then the head of the ministry’s personnel directorate was hauled into court. Within a few weeks two more senior military officials were detained. All faced charges of corruption, which they denied. The arrests started shortly before President Vladimir Putin began his fifth term after a longtime ally, longtime Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, was demoted to a new job.

This immediately raised questions about whether Putin was reasserting control over the Defense Ministry amid the war in Ukraine, whether a turf battle had broken out between the military and the security services, or whether some other scenario was playing out within the government. To many this seemed to be a return to the Russian government long described as a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.

Corruption scandals are not new and officials and top officials were accused of profiting from their positions for decades. Corruption in Russia functions as both a carrot and stick. It’s a way of encouraging loyalty and urging people to conform, as well as a method of control. Putin favors men who have embarrassing secrets when selecting key officials in his government. Trust those who have a secret they want kept secret. The Russian government constantly searches for such secrets so it can threaten to publicize them if the officials do not do as they are told. This hidden secret policy and tolerance for corruption are key elements in running the current Russian government.

The war in Ukraine has led to much larger defense spending that has increased opportunities for graft. In April the first official arrested for corruption was a former Deputy Defense Minister who presided over military-related construction projects that had high priority, access to lots of money and few financial controls. One of the projects was the reconstruction of the devastated Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. The Ukrainians held out for a long time and the Russians had to fight hard to capture a city of ruins and unusable factories and port facilities.

The recent arrests are not described as part of an anti-corruption campaign, but rather ongoing activities throughout the Russian government. That’s another way of admitting that corruption was everywhere and ongoing as an essential element of making the government work.

Key officials make little effort to hide their new wealth. They do this through ostentatious displays ranging from hundred million dollar yachts to new wrist watches that cost several times their official annual salaries. These displays of ill-gotten wealth by senior government and military officials and their family members were so extensive and obvious that it enraged Russians who were suffering economically because of the cost of the war.

There were more personal costs because about a million Russians have died, been disabled or deserted in Ukraine since early 2022, and their families and friends blame the Russian government because it was Russia that invaded Ukraine, not the other way around. During World War II, the last time Russia was invaded, there was little corruption in part because 15 percent of Russians died in that war. Most of them were killed by the Germans but many were killed by the Russian government.

Prompt obedience to orders in World War II was a matter of life or death for Russian soldiers and civilians because military officers and NKVD secret police personnel could kill any Russian displaying reluctance or refusal to carry out orders. The desperate situation during World War II limited opportunities for corruption. The war in Ukraine is different but, as many corrupt officials are discovering, not different enough to keep them out of prison or an early grave.

The recent arrests, prosecutions and imprisonment of senior officials who were corrupt, or too obviously corrupt, sent a message to all senior officials in jobs giving them access to the swollen defense budget that is now about eight percent of GDP. Before the invasion it was 3.6 percent. Putin thought the invasion would quickly overthrow the Ukrainian government. That did not happen and the costs of that war are more than Russia can afford. This is nothing new, it was decades of spending 15 percent of GDP on defense, and tolerating a lot of corruption by senior officials, that caused the Soviet Union to collapse in 1991. Many Russian economists and bankers believe another economic collapse, similar to what destroyed the Soviet Union, is possible unless the increased defense spending is restrained along with the growing corruption.