The ex-commander of the 58th Army, General Ivan Popov, is being sent to the front

Ex-commander of the 58th Army The RF Armed Forces decided to send General Popov to the SMO zone at his request. This was stated by his lawyer, reports TC Readovka.

In what position the general will return to the SMO zone has not yet been announced. His arrest and the investigation caused a great resonance, many servicemen expressed their support for him.

Recall that in March, Popov addressed an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking him to "return him to service." Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Putin had read the letter.

As reported by EADaily, 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 CAA of 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, military blogger Yuriy Podolyaka points out, 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.