Former Russian general faces fraud charges after truth-telling to Putin
General Ivan Popov, former commander of the 58th Army of the Russian Armed Forces, appeared before the Garrison Military Court in Tambov. He was detained in May for large-scale fraud and was also said to have conveyed inconvenient truths about the war to President Vladimir Putin.
7:56 AM EDT, September 26, 2024
In July, Ivan Popov was placed under house arrest. The general is accused of selling about 2,200 short tons of metal products intended for the construction of fortifications towards Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine. A criminal case was initiated based on the article on "fraud committed by an organized group or on a particularly large scale."
According to Popov's spokesperson, investigators claimed he was involved in the fraud committed by Oleg Tsokov, a Russian general killed in a Ukrainian shelling of Berdyansk. Tsokov died in July of last year.
The stolen materials were estimated to be worth over 1.1 million US dollars. Popov was supposed to have received around 11,000 US dollars from the sale.
Removed for inconvenient truths?
Popov was removed from his position as the commander of the 58th Army of the Russian Armed Forces in July last year. This decision was made after the general submitted a report stating that rotation was needed and Russian soldiers were "struggling with many problems."
Popov was said to have conveyed this in a direct conversation with President Vladimir Putin. Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov accused Popov of "disinformation and spreading panic."
