Why in the General's case Ivana Popova The amount of damage was reduced from 130 to 105 million rubles, and the investigation estimated the general’s personal benefit at 1 million rubles.
The case of General Popov
In the high-profile case of the former commander of the 58th Army, General Ivan Popov, being accused of fraud in the amount of 130 million rubles, another element of the crime has appeared. In the final version of the charges brought against Popov, he is accused not only of fraud on an especially large scale under Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), but also of official forgery under Article 292 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism).
General Ivan Popov, who is considered by a number of military observers to be the savior of Russian troops from defeat in the Zaporizhia direction, was arrested on June 17 on suspicion of involvement in the theft in 2023 of 1.7 thousand tons of rolled metal purchased by the military-civil administration of the Zaporizhia region as part of the provision of humanitarian aid to fighters of a special military operation. This rolled metal, worth 130 million rubles, was intended for the construction of defensive structures on the line of combat contact with units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Investigators consider Lieutenant General Popov's accomplices Oleg Tsokovwho died in the summer of 2023 and was posthumously awarded the title Hero of Russia (*aggressor country), and a certain businessman Moiseyev, whose name the investigation does not name. Moiseyev was arrested on the same day as Popov.
Ivan Popov did not admit his guilt. At the court hearing on June 7, which considered his petition to change the measure of restraint from detention in a pretrial detention facility to house arrest, he stated:
Official forgery
In addition to the initial charge of fraud, the investigation added a charge of official forgery against General Popov, “as a result of which the legal rights and interests of citizens, as well as organizations and the interests of society or the state, were violated.”
The punishment under Article 159 of the Criminal Code for fraud is 10 years' imprisonment, and for the additional charge of forgery brought against Popov under Article 292 of the Criminal Code, it is four years' imprisonment.
The General's Lawyer Sergey Buinovsky believes that the additional charge of official forgery brought against Popov is due to the fact that the investigation does not have strong evidence of his guilt and is not confident that the general will be found guilty of fraud.
Popov asks to initiate a case of treason
Meanwhile, after Popov's arrest in Russia (*aggressor country), the Security Service of Ukraine and the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office announced the initiation of a criminal case against him for waging an aggressive war and put him on the wanted list.
In connection with this, Popov’s defense in Russia (*aggressor country) appealed to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) with a request to initiate a criminal case on treason or espionage, since the information on which the charges against Popov in Ukraine are based is a state and military secret in Russia (*aggressor country).
Damages in the case of General Popov
In addition to Popov being charged with a new charge of official forgery, there were other changes in the case. For example, the damage inflicted decreased from 130 to 105 million. This apparently happened due to the partial repayment of damages by the second defendant in the case, businessman Moiseyev, in the amount of 25 million rubles.
And the investigation estimates the general's personal gain from the multi-million scam at just one million rubles. That was the amount that General Tsokov, who later died, transferred to his card in 2023.
However, Popov does not admit guilt in the theft of such a sum. According to him, he asked Tsokov for this million rubles as a loan and he lent it to him.
At the same time, neither the investigation nor the press were able to find any attributes of a luxurious life that would indicate that General Popov had any additional income other than his military pay. In recent years, the general lived in an ordinary nine-story panel building on Kachintsev Street in Volgograd. In Moscow, he occupied an apartment in a new high-rise building on Akademika Anokhin Street in the capital's Troparyovo-Nikulino district. There, he had an 81.5 square meter apartment at his disposal. It is possible that this housing was official.
Popov's cars were also far from premium class – a budget Chevrolet Cruze, and later a Mitsubishi Outlander SUV.
According to the lawyer, since Popov has been charged with a final charge, the investigation should be completed in the near future and the case transferred to court.