Recently, a number of Russian media reported that former Russian Deputy Defense Minister Tatiana Shevtsova defected to Paris. According to the report, the news came from so-called "insiders", and neither the Kremlin nor the French side has responded to the matter.
[Former Russian Deputy Defense Minister Shevtsova may defect]
The 54-year-old Shevtsova as the only female general in Russia, has quite old seniority in the Russian government department, since 1991 she has been working in the Russian Federal Tax Service, because of her strong work ability in 2004 she was promoted to the deputy head of the Russian Tax Bureau, when the head of the tax bureau was Serdyukov, so after Serdyukov was promoted to the Russian Defense Minister, Shevtsova also naturally entered the Russian Ministry of Defense and became one of the deputy defense ministers, in charge of military finance and other work.
After Serdyukov was dismissed in 2012 for corruption, Shevtsova, who intended to resign, was retained by Shoigu to continue as deputy defense minister, though just a month earlier, Putin fired three other deputy defense ministers on the same day on suspicion of corruption. Shevtsova's defection may have something to do with it.
You must know that Shevtsova was once regarded by the outside world as Shoigu's "money bag", and almost all the financial power of the Russian Ministry of Defense is in their hands. During her tenure, Shevtsova handled a large number of military purchases and military infrastructure projects, and even the welfare of Russian soldiers was under her control, and it was easy to make money from them.
[Shevtsova and Ivanov are regarded by the outside world as Shoigu's "money bag"]
Judging from the salaries of officials previously announced by Russia, Shevtsova's annual salary is 12 million rubles (about 1 million yuan), but Russian insiders say that she has many real estate and luxury cars in Russia. Including a villa worth about 2 billion rubles (about 170 million yuan) on the banks of the Moscow River, and several luxury apartments with a total value of 170 million rubles (about 14.42 million yuan); at the same time, she and her husband also own two Mercedes-Benz luxury cars, worth 5 million rubles and 10 million rubles respectively, and she has a large number of properties and residences in France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain. Forbes magazine included it in the list of Russia's richest people.
Corruption of senior military officials has always been a malaise of the Russian army, and at the moment when the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues to drag, it is particularly important to eradicate the cancer of corruption. It is foreseeable that once Shevtsova is found to be corrupt, she will basically spend the rest of her life in prison, and she chooses to escape from Russia at this time, Shevtsova obviously does not want to fall into the same fate as Ivanov.
But for Shevtsova, defecting to France doesn't mean it's okay to sit back and relax. Once it is confirmed that Shevtsova has defected to the West, the Russian Security Service will definitely hunt down Shevtsova and eliminate her. Because Shevtsova knows too many secrets.
[Shoigu has a close relationship with Shevtsova]
As the number one person in Russia's financial department, Shevtsova can be said to be well aware of Russia's internal situation, including the countries that secretly help Russia, Russia's channels for purchasing dual-use products, and even the quantity, equipment performance, and use of nuclear weapons, as well as the investment and final flow of high-precision weapons. And this information is urgently needed by the West.
Russian media reported that when she fled, in addition to carrying a suitcase full of cash, she also took a hard drive containing classified Russian documents and digital currency. Obviously, Shevtsova wants to use these secret materials as "bargaining chips" in exchange for political and personal protection from the West, which is no different from treason.
And we all know that Russia has always been merciless when it comes to traitors, such as the Kuzminov incident before. In August last year, Russian pilot Kuzminov was bribed by Ukrainian intelligence for $500,000 and killed two comrades, then defected to Ukraine in a Mi-8 helicopter and handed over the helicopter to the Ukrainian army. Since then, Kuzminov and his family have been living under the protection of the West.
[Putin issued a "hunt-and-kill order" to Russian traitors]
But soon after, Kuzminov's body was found in the underground garage of a small town in Spain, the Spanish police said that Kuzminov was shot 12 times and repeatedly run over by a vehicle, and the murderer's modus operandi was extremely professional, and he quickly drove away from the scene after the murder, and burned the crime vehicle, and no clues have been found so far. With such a clean, untraced assassination, it's hard not to suspect that it was the work of Russian intelligence.
In addition, in March this year, Putin publicly issued an order to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to investigate and punish all traitors who betrayed Russia, so that no one dares to do similar things again. This also means that Putin's government may do everything it can to ensure that Shevtsova no longer poses a threat to Russia's national security and punish her.
All in all, if the news of Shevtsova's defection is true, on the one hand, it shows that there is a big problem within Russia, and there are not many people Putin can trust; On the other hand, the situation that Russia faces next will be very tricky, and the West may also take this opportunity to pour dirt on China and revisit the so-called "Chinese aid to Ukraine", which we must take good measures to prevent accidents from happening.