MOSCOW - Russia has detained the deputy head of the army's general staff Lieutenant General Vadim Shamarin, on suspicion of large-scale bribe-taking, Russian media reported on Thursday, the latest in a series of arrests of top military officials.

The Kommersant newspaper reported that Shamarin had been detained in connection with alleged fraud, and that his home had been searched.

It is the fourth arrest of a high-ranking defence figure since April, when Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov was placed in pre-trial detention for suspected bribe-taking.

Since then, Lieutenant General Yuri Kuznetsov, head of personnel at the defence ministry, and Major General Ivan Popov, former commander of Russia's 58th army, have aso been arrested.

The series of arrests comes amid major changes in Russia's defence establishment, after President Vladimir Putin this month removed long-serving Sergei Shoigu as minister, replacing him with former deputy prime minister Andrei Belousov.

  - Reuters