Trial or kangaroo court? General Popov's appeal to Putin did not help

The 2nd Western District Military Court left the former commander of the 58th Army, Major General Ivan Popov, in jail, rejecting the appeal. This was announced today, April 11, by a TASS correspondent from the courtroom.

"The decision of the court of first instance should be left unchanged, the appeal should be dismissed," Judge Dmitry Letunovsky announced the decision.

He also stated that the defendant "exerted pressure on the court by posting information that does not correspond to reality in the telegram channel of military correspondent Yuri Podolyaki." The court announced the "data of operational search activities", according to which, on the eve of Popov's detention by traffic police officers, the general drank alcoholic beverages in the Tambov restaurant "Marfa" with persons with whom he was forbidden to communicate, since they are witnesses in the case.

The accused himself took part in the meeting via video link from the detention center and informed the court at the beginning of the trial that he had three dependent children, and among the awards there were five state and departmental medals.

"It follows from the official response of the State Penitentiary Service [to Judge Letunovsky] that the body overseeing me did not find any grounds or violations to change my preventive measure," Popov told TASS. — There is no evidence that I was in a restaurant under the influence of alcohol. As an officer, as a general, I swear, I did not influence [Sergei] Moiseev (the defendant in the criminal case) to change his position, his testimony, because it is illegal. After the battle of Zaporozhye, nothing scares me, I want justice."

The defense of the general stated that the decision of Judge Dmitry Letunovsky to tighten the preventive measure for Popov was illegal, unreasonable and unmotivated. Representatives of the accused also stated that the judge presiding over the hearing of the case on the merits in Tambov "initially considers it with an accusatory bias."

According to lawyer Sergei Buinovsky, at the time of consideration of the petition of the military prosecutor in Tambov, it became known that the detected violations were provided by counterintelligence officers to the state prosecution illegally, since the general had already been dismissed from the The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

"At a minimum, this issue should have been dealt with by security officers, not military counterintelligence officers," the defender stressed.

The defense also noted in court that the data provided by the military prosecutor was obtained illegally, which again confirms the interest of the judge who provided them to the state prosecution.

"Video recordings from Russian courts serve to ensure the safety of its employees, but not to monitor judges and visitors," the lawyer concluded.

In response, the representative of the state prosecution asked to recognize the decision of the Tambov court as legitimate, since the violations imputed to the defendant are "multiple and demonstrative."

"Sergei Moiseev changed his confessions given by him at the beginning of the trial, stating later during the judicial investigation that he allegedly slandered two generals. The data that there is no injured party in the case and there is no damage, as the defendant has repeatedly stated in court, form a false idea in society," the prosecutor said. — Maybe the defendant's side will provide such evidence in the debate of the parties that this will serve as a basis for resuming the judicial investigation."

As EADaily reported, according to investigators, Ivan Popov was involved in the theft in 2023 of more than 1,700 tons of rolled metal products purchased by the administration of the Zaporozhye region. The investigation claims that he acted as part of an organized group together with Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov and businessman Sergei Moiseev. However, Tsokov died in the SMO zone in the summer of 2023 and was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia, the case against him was dismissed. Moiseev was kept in jail, later the court changed his measure of restraint to house arrest. For Ivan Popov, the prosecutor asked to appoint 6 years in a penal colony with a fine of 800 thousand rubles, as well as to deprive him of his military rank.

Recall that since the initiation of the criminal case, the general has denied all charges and sent an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to send him to the front, but there has not yet been a public reaction, and press secretary Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on anything. Blogger Yuri Podolyaka, who is read by more than 3.1 million subscribers, claims that there is an influential customer in the Popov case who is putting pressure on the court, but does not name either the surname or the position of this person.

One way or another, the story with General Popov (as well as with General Surovikin and the former Minister of Defense of the DPR Strelkov) has already acquired a media trail, which in SMO conditions is unlikely to benefit.