A Russian military court on Thursday sentenced former Major General Ivan Popov to five years in jail on scams charges and rejected his request to return to the front lines in Ukraine.Popov, who commanded Russias 58th Combined Arms Army, was arrested in May 2024 for presumably abusing $1.5 million worth of metal intended to enhance defense structures in Russian-occupied Ukraine.His arrest had sparked criticism from pro-war blog writers, who accused Russias top brass of sidelining a respected field commander.The Tambov Garrison Military Court found Popov guilty of large-scale organized scams and forgery.
In addition to his prison sentence, Popov was stripped of his military rank and fined 800,000 rubles ($9,600).
Popov had actually rejected the charges.
Last month, the former general appealed directly to President Vladimir Putin, askingto enable him to go back to his postin Ukraine.His co-defendant, businessman Sergei Moiseyev, was sentenced to four years in jail and fined 400,000 rubles ($4,800).
Proceedings versus a 3rd accused, previous Deputy Commander of the Southern Military District, Oleg Tsokov, were suspended due to his death.Prosecutors had sought a six-year sentence for Popov.His lawyer, Sergei Buinovsky, told Interfaxthat the Tambov Garrison Military Court on Thursday denied the generals request to be sent back to combat duty.Under laws passed considering that Russias full-blown intrusion of Ukraine, Popov could have avoided criminal prosecution by signing a military contract.Popov first made headlines in 2023 when he implicated then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of shooting him from his command post after raising issues about military management and battleground mismanagement.
Shoigu was changed following Putins re-election last year.