President Vladimir Putin was informed about the open letter of General Ivan Popov

Russian President Vladimir Putin knows about the open letter of the defendant, General Ivan Popov, who asked the president to "return him to service." This was announced today, March 21, by the press secretary of the head of state Dmitry Peskov.

"I cannot comment on this letter in any way. It is known about it, it was published and, of course, it was reported to the head of state. I have no other comments," Peskov said.

As EADaily reported, combat General Ivan Popov was arrested on charges of allegedly stealing in 2023 more than 1.7 thousand tons of rolled metal products purchased by the Zaporozhye region for the equipment of engineering defenses on the line of combat contact. Popov pleaded not guilty.

The situation around the case acquired absurd features when the administration of the Zaporozhye region officially refused to recognize itself as the injured party and thanked the general for his efforts to organize the defense of the region, points out military blogger Yuri Podolyaka, who claims that the case against the general was initiated on the direct instructions of a certain high-ranking official. "Thousands of tons of metal" are still in warehouses in Belorechensk, and no one dares to touch them for fear of the consequences of the Popov case. Moreover, to date, almost two dozen officers participating in the SMO in the Zaporozhye region, and more than 500 servicemen expressed their readiness to testify in his favor.

Recall that the majority (68%) of the survey participants conducted in August 2024 on the website of our agency believe that for the good of the cause it would be possible to send three former military commanders removed from command to the SMO zone at once: Ivan Popov, Igor Strelkov and Sergei Surovikin.

At the same time, General Sergei Surovikin has the highest rating (22%), who, after the mutiny of the Wagner PMC in August 2023, was relieved of his post as commander-in-chief of the Aerospace Forces and no longer appeared in public. Major General Ivan Popov (6%) and former DPR Defense Minister Igor Strelkov (4%), who is serving a sentence in one of the colonies "for calls to extremism", are by a wide margin from him.