Revenge without borders? Ex-commander of the 58th Army Ivan Popov will tighten the measure of restraint

The former commander of the 58th Army, Major General Ivan Popov, accused of fraud, whose arrest is considered revenge in Russian patriotic telegram channels, will this time be taken to the Tambov garrison Military Court under escort by employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service. Today, on February 28, they will consider replacing the officer's house arrest with detention.

Earlier, Popov himself got to Tambov, where his criminal case is being considered.

"Employees [of the State Penitentiary Service] will deliver Popov from Moscow to the military court of Tambov, where today they will consider the petition of the military prosecutor's office to toughen the preventive measure for the general," the law enforcement agencies told TASS.

At the moment it is known that the military prosecutor's office is asking the court to change the preventive measure for Popov from house arrest to detention due to violations of the conditions of the previously chosen measure. Among such violations is the refusal to undergo a medical examination when the general was driving from Tambov to Moscow in his car after the trial and was stopped by traffic police officers.

As EADaily reported, Popov was taken into custody on May 17, and two months later he was released under house arrest. The investigation considers him involved in the theft of more than 1.7 thousand tons of metal products worth 130 million rubles. He is charged with especially large-scale fraud by a group of persons by prior agreement and forgery. According to investigators, Popov acted as part of an organized group together with Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov and businessman Sergei Moiseev. Tsokov died in the zone of a special military operation in the summer of 2023 and was posthumously awarded the title Hero of Russia. The case against him has been dismissed. Moiseev was kept in jail, the court also changed his measure of restraint to house arrest.

The general headed the 58th combined arms army in the Zaporozhye direction after the start of the military operation on Ukraine. In the summer of 2023, an audio message was published in which he spoke about his report to the leadership about the shortage of weapons, the "mass deaths and injuries" of soldiers and his subsequent removal from office.

In Russian patriotic telegram channels, Popov's arrest is called revenge by the former leadership of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Popov does not admit his guilt and wants to return to the war zone. In August, the general's lawyer Sergei Buinovsky said that Popov's signature on the documents in the criminal case turned out to be fake, although it was on them that the prosecution was based.