Deputy Russian military chief of staff jailed for bribery in latest arrest of high defense official

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian news reports say a deputy chief of the military general staff has been arrested on charges of large-scale bribery. The arrest of Lt. Gen. Vadim Shamarin reported Thursday was the latest in a series of bribery arrests of high-ranking military officials. Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov, a former top commander in Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, also was arrested this week on bribery charges. Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was arrested in April. Ivanov was a close associate of Sergei Shoigu, whom President Vladimir Putin dismissed as defense minister soon after Putin started a new term in May. Lt. Gen. Yury Kuznetsov, head of the defense ministry’s personnel directorate, was arrested two days after Shoigu was replaced.