Former Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) General Arrested in Moscow Pavel Popovwho supervised the country’s Defense Control Center system. He is involved in a major fraud case involving the Patriot Park. Where does his family get assets worth hundreds of millions?
On August 29, it became known that law enforcement officers detained another high-ranking military official, Pavel Popov. The former deputy defense minister became a defendant in a criminal case of fraud. This is already the third deputy of Sergei Shoigu against whom an investigation has been launched.
What is General Pavel Popov accused of?
The indictment and detention of retired general Pavel Popov did not come as much of a surprise. Back in June 2024, President Vladimir Putin (*criminal) dismissed four former deputies Sergei Shoiguincluding Popov, who held the post since 2013. Shoigu had 12 deputies in total. 67-year-old Army General Pavel Popov served as deputy head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for a long time. When he transferred to work at the Ministry of Defense, he was entrusted with the entire innovative direction: research and development, the robotics center, and the development of information and telecommunications technologies.
The criminal case against Popov is connected with this direction. Back in June, the Main Military Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) opened a criminal case under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code (fraud on an especially large scale as part of a group), for which the perpetrators face up to 10 years in prison. According to the investigation, General Popov and his partners were engaged in fraud in the Patriot Park. The director of the park, Vyacheslav Akhmedov, and the deputy head of the Main Directorate for Innovative Development of the Russian Defense Ministry, Vladimir Shesterov, were arrested earlier as part of the case. There was information in the media that the latter was cooperating with the investigation. It is possible that he testified against Popov.
The 235th Garrison Military Court considered the request of the Main Military Investigation Department to arrest former Deputy Minister of Defense Pavel Popov. According to the SHOT Telegram channel, investigators believe that Popov, who was responsible for the development, maintenance, and operation of the Patriot Park, enriched himself at the expense of this institution: he used building materials for construction at his dacha and forced park employees to work on his 3-hectare plot for free.
According to investigators, Popov decided to make repairs and carry out some construction work at his dacha, which is located in the Krasnogorsk region. Investigators believe that the former deputy minister’s shadow income consisted of gray barter and kickbacks.
This, according to investigators, is what allowed the official’s family to buy real estate in prestigious areas of the capital, the Moscow region, and in the south of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) for a total of 500 million rubles.
How General Pavel Popov’s Family Lives
Pavel Popov’s family occupies apartments in the prestigious Smolenskaya Zastava residential complex in the capital’s Khamovniki (up to 75 million rubles), a brick mansion in the gated Mashkinskie Kholmy cottage community in Novogorsk (up to 200 million), a five-room apartment in a townhouse in ecologically clean Kurkino (up to 50 million), and a house on the banks of the Yenisei in the forest belt of Krasnoyarsk (up to 50 million). In addition, the general’s family used simpler real estate: three-room apartments in Khimki on Melnikova Street and in Kurkino on Rodionova Street, with a total value of up to 50 million rubles. It is possible that these assets are rented out.
Popov’s son Novel he set up a business in clothing and ammunition, he sold all of this via the Internet for at least two years, writes SHOT. Uniforms, shoes, backpacks and tactical helmets were put into action. The publication managed to find out that 24 items were put under the hammer. The general’s son is 43 years old, he is the owner of a 110-meter apartment in the Moscow region, the cadastral value of such property is currently 35 million rubles.
Roman Popov and his wife Irina also used the studio in Residential complex “New Eden” in the village of Gavrilkovo near Krasnogorsk, a two-room apartment in the residential complex “Zarechnaya Sloboda” in Ivanteyevka. The young family is doing well financially: the wife is into bodybuilding, travels a lot to exotic countries.
Biography of Pavel Popov
The future general was born in 1957 in Krasnoyarsk. Since 1978, his biography has been connected with the armed forces – he graduated from the Alma-Ata Higher Combined Arms Command School. Like many of Shoigu’s associates in the Ministry of Defense, he went through the Ministry of Emergency Situations – from 1996 to 2004, he headed the East Siberian and Siberian regional centers of the Ministry of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters, and later headed the Academy of Civil Defense of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). From 2008 to 2013, he was deputy minister in the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Army General Pavel Popov, 67, was transferred to the Ministry of Defense in November 2013. The Defense Ministry entrusted him with innovation and research activities. He was awarded orders and medals: the Order “For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR” 3rd degree, “For Military Merit”, and the medal of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland” 2nd degree.