The investigator petitioned the court to release the former commander of the 58th Army, Ivan Popov, from the pre-trial detention center, the Investigative Committee reported. They demand that the military man be transferred to house arrest.
The department also confirmed the plot of the fraud case, which was previously reported by the Z-channel “Two Majors.”
According to the investigation, the major general “was involved in the theft in 2023 of more than 1,700 tons of rolled metal products purchased by the military-civil administration of the Zaporozhye region <…> for the equipment of engineering defensive structures on the line of combat contact» (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code).
The damage was estimated at more than 130 million rubles.
“Two majors” claimed that the case also involved a “entrepreneur from the Krasnodar region”, who “ sold purchased material assets outside the region” and “a high-ranking official [of the Southern Military District].” They are not mentioned in the Investigative Committee's report.
As commander of the 58th Army, Popov participated in the war with Ukraine. In 2023, the major general recorded an audio message in which he said that he had been removed from his post after a report about problems at the front, and sharply criticized the Russian military leadership.
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