General Popov made the last word in court
“I believe that my place is on the protection of the borders of our homeland,” said Major General Ivan Popov, former commander of the 58th combined arms army, speaking with the last word. Two days later, it will become clear whether his wish will be fulfilled: upon the announcement of the sentence, the court will make a decision and, at the request of the Ministry of Defense, who proposed to allow the ex-commandant to conclude a contract with the military department and go to the front line.
In the Tambov garrison military court, the defendants-Major General Ivan Popov and entrepreneur Sergey Moiseev performed with the last word. They are accused of especially large fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and personally ex-commandarm-and in official forgery (Article 292 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to investigators, the defendants are involved in the the summer of 2023, 1.7 thousand tons of metal products purchased by the Military-Grazhda administration of the Zaporizhzhya region for the construction of defensive structures and transferred to the military.
The accusation believes that General Popov deliberately requested more metal than was required to realize the excess on the side, which Sergei Moiseev was engaged in. And in order to take suspicions from himself, the military leader forced his subordinates to put his signatures in the application. Thanks to the scam, its participants received more than 100 million rubles.
The performance of Ivan Popov lasted about 20 minutes. The general said that he was always faithful to the duty, oath and was ready to fulfill the orders of the higher leadership, « primarily the Supreme Commander -in -Chief and the head of the General Staff. »
“I think that at the moment my place is on the protection of the borders of our homeland,” added Ivan Popov.
He once again emphasized that he completely rejects the charge brought to him, noting that « he was mistaken in communicating with people. » The general regretted that he made mistakes when communicating with senior bosses, but he was not guilty of the property of publicity. “Some villains merged this,” the defendant said. “I can say that unscrupulous people did it.”
In turn, entrepreneur Sergei Moiseev told the court that he was “not a bastard and does not want to stipulate anyone”, including Ivan Popov. The defendant once again repeated the version of the protection and defendants that the funds received from the sale of a small part of the metal structures received for the construction of protective structures in the Zaporizhzhya region were not assigned to the defendants, according to the investigation, but were spent on the acquisition of equipment for working with metal, which was not enough.
After the presentations of the defendants, the presiding judge will retire to the advisory room for a sentence in the process. His announcement is scheduled for April 24. At the same time, as Kommersant reported earlier, Ivan Popov should soon go to the war zone. The Ministry of Defense has already petitioned the court to suspend the criminal prosecution of Major General and his sent to the military unit, so that he would be concluded with a contract for participation in a special military operation. The decision will be made upon the announcement of the sentence.
