Military investigators charged the former commander of the 58th army, Major General Ivan Popov, with fraud.
„He is accused. He denies all the charges, as he is not involved in what the investigation accuses him of”, his lawyer Sergey Buinovsky told TASS.
On May 17, the 235th Garrison Military Court arrested Major General Popov for two months in a criminal case for fraud on a particularly large scale (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). He is currently being held in pre-trial detention. The lawyer said the Second Western District Military Court will hear the appeal against the arrest on Friday. The Investigative Committee also expressed a desire to soften Popov's remand. According to his official representative, Svetlana Petrenko, the Main Military Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee petitioned to change Popov's remand from house arrest.
According to the investigation, Popov participated in the theft in 2023 of more than 1,700 tons of rolled steel purchased by the military-civilian administration of the Zaporozhye region as part of the provision of humanitarian aid. These materials were intended for the equipment of engineering defense structures on the line of combat contact. Their price is over 130 million rubles.