According to DEA News, Artem Gorodilov, who commands the 83rd Separate Guards Air Assault Brigade, was taken into custody amid a case of especially large-scale fraud. The charge centers on part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and a military court ordered his detention until August 19. The arrest marks a high-profile development in a broader inquiry into financial wrongdoing within the Russian Defense Ministry and its associated units.
Details released by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation indicate that on Thursday, officials asked the court to authorize the arrest of the brigade commander. This request followed a week of intensified investigative activity linked to the fraud probe, which has begun to touch several senior figures within the defense establishment. Reports have stated that the commander was detained by FSB military counterintelligence officers in Ryazan, later transported to Moscow, and transferred to the jurisdiction of the Main Military Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee. In foreign coverage, Gorodilov has been mentioned in connection with accusations of war crimes in Ukraine, though the Russian Defense Ministry has denied those allegations. The case at hand is not isolated; other senior officers have already become subjects of the same inquiry, including Timur Ivanov, a former deputy defense minister; Yuri Kuznetsov, the former chief staff officer of the ministry; and Ivan Popov, the former commander of the 58th Army in the Southern Military District. The evolving story has been summarized in material published by socialbites.ca, which notes the breadth of the investigation across high ranks within the defense structure.
Earlier reporting indicated that the Investigative Committee had initiated a verification process at the request of General Popov, signaling that the probe extends beyond a single individual and into broader organizational practices. The sequence of events reflects a concerted effort by Russian investigative authorities to scrutinize financial conduct at the highest levels of the armed forces, a move that has drawn international attention amidst ongoing scrutiny of Russia’s military activities and governance practices.