Russian General sentenced to five years in prison as UK Intelligence interprets Kremlin's sense of repression
Photo: Ivan Popov (wikipedia)
The Kremlin uses theft accusations as a tool for repressing critics of the regime. Corruption itself is of little concern, the UK Ministry of Defense reports.
According to the update, on April 24, 2025, a Russian military court sentenced former Major General Ivan Popov, who previously commanded the 58th Combined Arms Army, to five years in a penal colony. Popov was convicted of large-scale fraud and document forgery committed during his official duties related to the sale of military construction materials.
The former Major General was also stripped of his military rank, fined 800,000 rubles (approximately $9,600), and, according to reports, his request to return to the front in Ukraine was denied.
According to UK intelligence, Popov was removed from his post as commander of the 58th Army (deployed in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region) in July 2023, after his private criticism of Russian military leadership decisions regarding the war became public. He was later arrested in May 2024 on fraud charges.
"Corruption is endemic in the Russian system, with punishment more often applied as a political tool than an attempt to enforce good governance. This is a long history of the Russian regime using corruption charges, real or invented, to remove or punish internal critics of those who have angered powerful elite figures," the UK Ministry of Defense stated.
As previously reported, in the summer of 2023, during Ukraine's counteroffensive in the south, there was effectively a mutiny among Russia's military leadership. Popov was an active participant in that unrest. He publicly accused former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of inaction.
