Vladimir Putin once went fishing with long-time Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and now he is putting his allies on trial. There is wild speculation in Moscow.
Mar 13, 2026, 10:14 amMar 13, 2026, 10:14 am
Ivan Ruslyannikov / ch media
Almost two years have passed since Vladimir Putin removed Sergei Shoigu from office. He was defense minister for twelve years and was actually considered irreplaceable. The Russian president celebrated his birthday several times with Shoigu and regularly retreated with him to the Siberian taiga. When Putin turned 67, he and Shoigu rode a buggy along the Yenisei River. They picked mushrooms, admired cedar cones and breathed fresh air.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking action: Will he end up putting his ex-defense minister on trial?Image: keystone
Much has changed since then: Shoigu, who took over the formal post of Secretary of the Security Council after his resignation, is watching as one close confidant after another is jailed on corruption charges.
Recently, Shoigu’s former first deputy, Ruslan Tsalikov, was arrested on charges of creating a criminal organization and bribery. His former deputy Timur Ivanov, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for corruption, is currently trying to volunteer for the war in Ukraine.
However, he is denied this. Another former deputy of Shoigu, Pavel Popov, also a defendant in a corruption case, is awaiting his verdict in the notorious Lefortovo prison.
Vladimir Putin speaks with current Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu in Moscow.Image: www.imago-images.de
Shoigu does not feel comfortable in his position as secretary of the Security Council. He considers the tasks he has to fulfill to be secondary and demeaning. Throughout 2025, Shoigu flew to Pyongyang several times to meet with dictator Kim Jong-un.
After Tsalikov, the next candidate for the status of defendant in a corruption case in the Defense Ministry, which has been given noticeably recently, could be Shoigu himself. Numerous Telegram channels that specialize in information leaks from the security authorities report on this.
Nobody is untouchable anymore
Putin’s deep fear could be behind this wave of purges. The Kremlin allegedly fears a possible coup attempt by Shoigu’s clan and is therefore taking preventive measures and checking for disloyalty in military circles.
The Telegram channel “VChK-OGPU” points out that, under strange circumstances, there was a widespread outage of mobile internet after Tsalikov was arrested in Moscow. The main building of the FSB on Lubyanka, the Presidential Administration, the Security Council, the Moskva City business district and several Defense Ministry units were affected.
Does Vladimir Putin have reason to consider the man he went fishing with a few years ago a traitor? The Telegram channel “Moscow Laundry” with more than 600,000 subscribers says: yes. “There is no doubt that the arrest of Tsalikov was personally coordinated with Vladimir Putin,” it says. And further: “If the FSB gets to Shoigu through Tsalikov, then it is a tectonic shift in the relations between Vladimir Putin and his closest circle, which includes Shoigu.”
Ruslan Tsalikov was arrested.Image: keystone
In connection with Shoigu, it can be assumed that Vladimir Putin was strongly influenced by the arrest of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and the murder of the Iranian revolutionary leader Ali Khamenei, the widely followed Telegram channel continues. At his time, “Gaddafi’s sad fate had an enormous influence on him.” If Shoigu is brought to justice, it would be a message to those around him: “There are no more untouchables,” writes the channel.
A military uprising is one of the Kremlin chief’s greatest fears. Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed march on Moscow in the summer of 2023 already made this very real. So the Kremlin’s paranoia comes as no surprise.
The criminal proceedings against the generals have, among other things, alienated Shoigu, who was once popular with the people, from the Russians. Withdrawing popular support from him is also interpreted as a Kremlin strategy. The rumors that Shoigu was preparing a conspiracy will only be confirmed when he one day sits in the dock with his former subordinate generals. (aargauerzeitung.ch)