Top Russian military official appears in court on bribery charges

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Top Russian military official appears in court on bribery charges

2024-04-24 19:13 Last Updated At：19:20

A top Russian military official arrested on suspicion of accepting a bribe was sent to pre-trial detention Wednesday after appearing before a court in central Moscow, court officials said in a statement.

Timur Ivanov, 48, one of Russia’s 12 deputy defense ministers, was arrested Tuesday evening, Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement. It gave no further information, apart from specifying that Ivanov is suspected of taking an especially large bribe — a criminal offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

According to a statement from the court, investigators told Moscow’s Basmany court Wednesday that Ivanov had conspired with third parties to receive a bribe in the form of unspecified property services “during contracting and subcontracting work for the needs of the Ministry of Defense.”

An acquaintance of Ivanov's, identified as Sergei Borodin, was also arrested and ordered into pre-trial detention on the same charges, court officials said in a separate statement. Both men are to remain in custody until at least June 23.

According to the defense ministry’s website, Ivanov was appointed to the post in 2016 by a presidential decree. He oversaw property management, housing and medical support for the military, construction and reconstruction of facilities.

Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that both President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu were informed about Ivanov’s arrest, which comes as Moscow’s war in Ukraine continues into its third year.

Peskov also dismissed reports in the Russian media Wednesday that the corruption allegations against Ivanov were intended to obscure additional allegations of high treason.

Independent Russian news outlet reported that the bribery charges were intended to hide more serious charges and avoid public scandal, citing two unnamed sources close to Russia’s Federal Security Services.

Peskov described the reports as speculation. “There are a lot of rumors: we need to rely on official information,” he told journalists.

Ivanov’s lawyer also denied any additional charges, telling RIA Novosti that official was only facing bribery allegations.

Before his arrest on Tuesday evening, Ivanov was seen attending a meeting with Shoigu and other top military brass.

Russian media reported that he was in charge, among other things, of some of the construction in Mariupol — a port city in Ukraine’s partially occupied Donestk region which was heavily bombarded and occupied by Russian forces early on in the war in 2022.

Zvezda, the official TV channel of the Russian military, reported in the summer of 2022 that the ministry “is building an entire residential block” in the severely damaged city and showed Ivanov inspecting construction sites.

That same year, the team of the late Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader and anti-corruption campaigner, alleged that Ivanov and his family had been living an extravagant life with luxurious trips abroad, lavish parties and elite real estate. The opposition activists also alleged that Ivanov’s wife Svetlana divorced him in the summer of 2022, avoided sanctions and continued to enjoy the lavish lifestyle.

Commenting on the detention of Ivanov on Tuesday, Navalny's ally Maria Pevchikh said on X, formerly Twitter: “It's a good day today.”

Radek Faksa scores in return, Stars oust defending Stanley Cup champ Golden Knights 2-1 in Game 7

2024-05-06 11:40 Last Updated At：11:50

DALLAS (AP) — Radek Faksa made a promise to his 2 1/2-year-old son when they were playing together before the Dallas Stars took the ice for Game 7.

Faksa did indeed score in his return to the lineup after missing four games because of an undisclosed injury. His go-ahead goal came on a backhander 44 seconds into the third period, after his son had been taken home, and Dallas beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 on Sunday night to wrap up the first-round series.

“I’m happy I did," Faksa said. “And so I can show him the video in the morning, and we can watch it together.”

Only captain Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin have played longer for the Stars than Faksa, a fourth-liner in his ninth season who got his goal from the circle to the left of goalie Adin Hill. Dallas also got another Game 7 goal from 20-year-old Wyatt Johnston.

Jake Oettinger had 21 saves in his second Game 7 victory. He also had the Stars' only penalty, though they killed that off after he was called for tripping Ivan Barbashev in front of the net midway through the third.

“The last period was a clinic. Just so proud of the guys of how we responded,” Oettinger said. "It’s a long playoffs and you’re going to need different guys to step up at different times. A lot of hockey left so hopefully a lot more heroes. It’s going to be a run ride.”

The Stars, the No. 1 seed in the West, move on to play well-rested Colorado in the second round. Game 1 is in Dallas on Tuesday night, a week after the Avalanche wrapped up their series against Winnipeg with a Game 5 victory.

Brett Howden scored for Vegas, which couldn’t pull off another series winner in Dallas, where last year the Knights wrapped up the Western Conference Final with a win in Game 6. Hill had 22 saves in his third game of this series after Logan Thompson started the first four.

The visitor won the first four games in this series until the home teams held serve the last three games.

“There’s probably a lot of doubters out there. After Game 2, they probably thought we couldn’t come back,” Benn said. “A lot of believers in this room, in this organization. And we showed ’em.”

Dallas has won Game 7s in each of its first two postseasons for coach Pete DeBoer, who is now 8-0 in his career in such games with four different teams. That includes the Knights’ only Game 7 wins in 2020 and 2021 when he was their coach.

Johnston scored his series-high fourth goal on a wrister from the top of the slot with 5:26 left in the first period after picking off a clearing pass by Shea Theodore that his teammate, Tomas Hertl, missed when taking a twisting swipe at it.

A day after his 20th birthday last May, Johnston became the youngest player in NHL history with a game-clinching goal in a Game 7. He gathered a puck that ricocheted off the back boards in the third period of the Stars' 2-1 win over Seattle in that second-round series.

The goal Sunday against came in quick succession after Vegas had two scoring chances. Oettinger made a tough save to deny Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault then shot the rebound off the left post, and got a hit on Johnston before the Dallas youngster skated to the other end and scored about 10 seconds later.

“I think a couple of our players will probably not sleep tonight, because if you look at what transpired in the game,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We hit a post, take them down, they score 10 seconds later. We miss an open net at the end of the second, and they score on the first shift of the third. ... It’s a little bit of hockey sometimes when two close teams play.”

The series ended with both teams scoring 16 goals.

Vegas, which returned 22 of its 27 players from the Stanley Cup-winning roster, tied it in the second period when Michael Amadio made a crossing pass to Howden, who poked the puck into the open left side of the net behind Oettinger.

The only coach other than DeBoer to win eight Game 7s is Darryl Sutter, who was 8-3 in such games over 182 playoff games over 15 postseasons with four teams.

The Knights are 2-2 in Game 7s. DeBoer was also the opposing coach in their other loss, to San Jose in 2019.

It was only the second time of 16 that the Stars won a best-of-seven series after losing the first two games. The only other was the very first playoff series in franchise history, when the Minnesota North Stars were down 0-2 before beating the Los Angeles Kings in seven games to open the 1968 playoffs.

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL