Russian General Ivan Popov charged with major fraud amid war revelations
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 Putin.
In July, Ivan Popov was placed under house arrest. The general is accused of selling about 2,000 metric tonnes of metal products intended to construct fortifications towards Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine. Based on the article on fraud committed by a group or on a particularly large scale, a criminal case was initiated.
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 value of the stolen materials was estimated to be over 1.5 million CAD. From the sale, Popov was supposed to have received around 15,000 CAD.
Removed for inconvenient truths?
Popov was removed from his position as 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 directly to Vladimir Putin. Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov accused Popov of "disinformation and panic-spreading."
