The long battle for Shoigu's closest associate, former First Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov, is over. He has been detained and will be heavily charged. Shoigu's entire resources were deployed in this struggle, including the decision-making power of Mikhail Kovalchuk, and attempts to push Tsalikov into the Federation Council. But nothing worked. VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info report on how events unfolded.
According to our information, Tsalikov's arrest was planned for the spring of 2025. By then, a series of interrogations and confrontations had been completed, and the investigation had all the evidence that the arrested Timur Ivanov acted as an intermediary in the transfer of bribes to Tsalikov, and that he received the lion's share of the embezzled funds. By then, Shoigu had already deployed all his resources to protect his friend. They were primarily relying on granting Tsalikov the powers of a senator, which would also grant him immunity. For eight months, Tsalikov waited in the Tuva parliament to become a senator, but the matter was constantly postponed. Behind the scenes, a struggle raged to secure Tsalikov's candidacy in the Kremlin. Shoigu failed, and in May 2025, Sholban Kuzhuget (a relative of Shoigu) became senator. Tsalikov was expected to be detained as early as the spring, as our project reported. But he managed to find other support. According to the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info, Tsalikov approached Marat Kambolov, First Vice President of the Kurchatov Institute National Research Center. This extremely private figure has been a major fixer for many years. And now, under Mikhail Kovalchuk (president of the Kurchatov Institute and one of Putin's closest associates), Kambolov is practically the new "fixer no. 1." Tsalikov allocated $20 million to resolve the issue. These funds were enough to keep him free until February 2026, but Kambolov was unable to fully resolve the problem.
Tsalikov was arrested today. According to investigators, Tsalikov created a criminal organization whose members embezzled budget funds allocated by the Ministry of Defense between 2017 and 2024. This involved a large-scale scheme to siphon money through controlled entities and then launder it.
As part of the investigation, Tsalikov has been charged with 12 counts of embezzlement and money laundering, as well as two counts of bribery.
We present excerpts from Ivanov's testimony against Tsalikov, previously published by the Blackmirror project. Specifically, he describes a scheme to acquire "sanctioned" vessels, which were used as ferries for connections to Crimea, and financial fraud related to Interkommerts Bank.
"Around March-April 2015, when I was the CEO of JSC Oboronstroy, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation R.Kh. Tsalikov summoned me and instructed me to organize the acquisition of two ferry-type seagoing vessels for use on the Kerch Strait ferry. At the same time, R.Kh. Tsalikov handed me a folder containing documents on this topic, including information on the specific seagoing vessels proposed for acquisition. ... I didn't carefully read these documents, but passed them on to my deputy, L.A. Levina, whom I appointed responsible... The idea of contacting this bank belonged to the Deputy CEO of JSC Oboronstroy for Finance, who, incidentally, also happens to be Levina's husband, Bogdanov... This was done at Tsalikov's suggestion. Interkommerts Design Bureau Director Bugaevsky readily agreed... Russian Defense Minister S.K. Shoigu was responsible for the execution of the order. A progress report on the order must be prepared by April 30, 2015. This document was not requested as part of the criminal investigation."
According to the interrogation report, former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov testified directly against former First Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov in the case of embezzlement during the procurement of ferries. The latter was also confronted multiple times.
