A former Defense Ministry official was detained on Thursday in a fraud case, marking the latest high-profile arrest in what appears to be a broad investigation into abuse of office within Russia’s military leadership.
Ex-Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Popov could face up to 10 years in prison if charged and convicted, following his detention on fraud allegations, Russian state news agencies reported. He has been ordered to remain in custody until at least October 29.
The case against Popov involves business activities at Patriot Park, a vast complex in Moscow often referred to as Russia’s “military Disneyland.”
Patriot Park, championed by former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, is intended to foster national pride among young people and features displays of Soviet and Russian weaponry, a firing range, air base, museums, a conference center, and the imposing Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces, adorned with mosaics of Soviet and Russian soldiers. President Vladimir Putin personally donated to the commissioning of the main icon for the church, according to the Kremlin.
Popov is the eighth senior military figure to be arrested on charges of fraud, bribery, or abuse of office in recent months, including Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, who was arrested for bribery in April and subsequently dismissed. The arrests began shortly before Putin replaced Shoigu with economist Andrei Belousov.
Analysts believe these arrests indicate the removal of Shoigu’s allies from power and suggest a crackdown on corruption within the Defense Ministry.
Popov, who was responsible for the development and maintenance of Patriot Park, is accused of renovating his personal properties in the Moscow region at the park’s expense, as reported by the state news agency Tass. He faces fraud charges alongside the park’s director and Maj. Gen. Vladimir Shesterov, deputy of the Defense Ministry’s innovations department, both of whom have also been detained.
According to Svetlana Petrenko of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Popov coerced companies with contracts at Patriot Park to work on his “out-of-town apartments without payment.”
Besides owning land with houses outside Moscow, Popov and his family hold “numerous properties in prestigious areas of Moscow, the Moscow region, and the Krasnodar region,” valued at a total of 500 million rubles ($5.5 million). Investigators are currently determining if these properties were acquired legally, Petrenko told Tass.
According to Richard Connolly, a specialist on the Russian economy and military at the Royal United Services Institute in London, corruption within the Defense Ministry is so pervasive that the selection of those arrested may be influenced by “internal turf wars.”
The arrests are intended to “send a message in a strategically important sector” and may also provide an opportunity to “settle some scores,” he added.
Popov served as deputy defense minister from 2013 until his dismissal by presidential decree in June. His arrest follows that of former Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Dmitry Bulgakov, who was detained in Moscow in July.
Tass reported that Bulgakov faces charges of large-scale embezzlement, allegedly involving overpriced and low-quality food rations supplied to soldiers. If convicted, he also faces up to 10 years in prison.
Bulgakov served as deputy defense minister from 2008 until his dismissal in 2022. He was responsible for logistics, and while the ministry claimed he was reassigned, the move was widely seen as a response to logistical failures in supporting operations in Ukraine.
By FCCT Editorial Team
, an independent military force, and allied militias in Sudan raped several dozen women and girls in West Darfur’s capital, El Geneina, and those fleeing to Chad between late April and late June 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. The assailants appear to have targeted people because of their Massalit ethnicity and, in some cases, because they were known activists.){kind=link}