Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ The conviction of former General Ivan Popov has produced a vehement reaction from Russian warbloggers, who denounce it as unjustified. Although he has been sentenced to five years' imprisonment and loss of rank, Popov may yet go back to fight again in Ukraine. ⬇️

2/ Popov has been in detention since May 2024 on charges of fraudulently appropriating and selling 1,700 tons of rolled metal structures intended for use in building defensive structures on the front line. He argued that it was scrap metal which he sold to aid his troops.

3/ He was also charged with falsification of official documents relating to the metal parts. His former deputy, the late Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov, was also implicated. A businessman, Sergei Moiseyev, was sentenced to four years in prison and fined 400,000 rubles ($4,800).

4/ Popov and Tsokov were accused of having cost the state 130 million rubles ($1.56 m) According to the prosecution, Popov received 1.4 million rubles ($16,847) from Tsokov and Moiseyev, as well as a Chinese-made Geely Tugella luxury car worth 4 million rubles ($48,000).

5/ Popov was a popular and well-regarded general who fell out spectacularly with the Russian army's Chief of General Staff General Valery Gerasimov. Whatever the truth of the allegations, it's highly likely that his prosecution was Gerasimov's revenge.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1698266043821555729

6/ Last month, Popov wrote an appeal to Vladimir Putin asking to be sent back to Ukraine to continue fighting there. While this was turned down by the court, it's not impossible that he will eventually be sent back to serve in a junior rank.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1903010758943769049

7/ According to the Kommersant newspaper, a decision has already been made to send him to command a Storm Z assault unit after the formal end of the legal proceedings against him. He is unlikely to have a long life expectancy if he takes part personally in assaults.

8/ Popov has consistently been supported by the Russian warblogger community, which reflects the former general's popularity among his men. 'Two Majors' writes:

9/ "We hope that a general with combat experience will still be at the front, albeit as a private, and not in a prison camp.

10/ "Apparently, we have 'many' generals with combat experience and respect in the troops, since we can squander personnel like this in the fourth year of the war.

Nevertheless, the state has once again demonstrated the principle of "merits are separate from deeds".

11/ "We wish Ivan Popov to quickly survive all these difficulties and end up where he is most needed."

'Romanov Light' attributes Popov's downfall to his willingness to speak out about his superiors' failures:

12/ "General Popov (call sign "Spartak") spoke about the real situation in matters of organisation, support, interaction and compliance with the reality of reports in the Ministry of Defence.

13/ "For this, Popov was removed from his post and received personal insult from [former Defence Minister] Shoigu (who decided to surrender the territory of the Russian Federation – Kherson – without a fight) and Gerasimov...

14/ ... (who reported to the President on 08/07/2024 that the enemy's advance into [Russian] territory in the Kursk direction had been stopped)"

15/ 'Zhivov Z' calls it "a tragic day in the history of our country. The people who did this hardly understand what demons they have given birth to."

The channel laments:

"In general, some strange tradition has been established in Russia."

16/ "Every 10 years, they take the most morally pure, understandable and beloved by people and fellow soldiers combat officer and publicly put him through the meat grinder of the judicial system with all the corresponding attributes, including deprivation of ranks and orders.

17/ "I will not even give a list of these officers here, every sane Russian man knows their names by heart.

18/ "At the same time, with the same intensity, officers and military officials who have often caused irreparable harm to the army and the country are condemned, and always with the most lenient sentences.

Is the mafia immortal?"

19/ The Wagner-linked 'Alex Parker Return' urges readers to remember "that he is the only general who directly said what he thinks about the drunken warlord Gerasimov. The result was predictable."

20/ The channel complains: "Thus, all those who repelled the counter-offensive of the [Ukrainians] and actually saved the shameless [Putin] from disgrace and defeat are now either killed, like Prigozhin,...

21/ ...or sitting [in jail], like General Popov, or sent into exile with a complete ban on media activity, like General Surovikin [former Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces]. This is some kind of disgrace!"

22/ 'Colonel Kvachkov and his comrades' denounces a "sham case" in which "there is no injured party, no crime, nothing.

23/ "But the offended Gerasimov is not some kind of jurisprudence, he is a representative of the real government, for which personal insults must be punished, including with the rape of common sense.

24/ "Therefore, 5 years, a fine of 800 thousand and the most vile thing, which speaks to the essence of Gerasimov's personality: depriving the combat general who stopped the Bandera offensive of his military rank.

25/ "No real officer could bear such shame from the baseness of his actions. But in the current hard times, it seems, real officers are not kept in the General Staffs. Now, apparently, a somewhat different kind of serviceman is in demand.

26/ "Therefore, instead of offensive operations, battles for the 'forester's hut' have been going on for 3 years."

27/ Sergei Koyasnikov criticises "five years in prison for a combat officer who repelled the onslaught of Ukronazis in 2023. A general whose property includes a three-room apartment and an ancient jalopy... This is not a trial. This is a trial and settling of personal scores."

28/ Maria Sergeevna hints at why the Kremlin might be keen to send Popov to his death as a stormtrooper:

"Ivan Popov behaves and looks not just like a natural politician, but like a hero from a TV series. Appearance, charisma, the right words."

29/ "And he also very accurately fits the archetype of a folk hero – there is already an established folk myth about "he repelled a counterattack, was displeasing to jealous superiors, stripped of all ranks and sentenced to hard labour."

30/ "Moreover, he fits the role of a rebel within the system much more accurately than the late Prigozhin or the imprisoned Strelkov – because they really did a lot of PR and politicking, and Popov simply fought...

31/ "Literally, by a court decision, a combat general was turned into a serious political figure."

Somewhat daringly, the pro-Russian Ukrianian politician Pavel Gubarev blames "Putin's regime" for Popov's fate:

32/ "The system took revenge on General Popov for the fact that he:

1. Directly and openly expressed objective criticism to the face of his leadership.

2. Published information about the conflict that followed the criticism.

33/ "The case was sewn up long and diligently, from a formal-hypocritical point of view a mosquito’s nose wouldn’t get under. But in essence, the case was fabricated.

34/ "The system demonstrates that reprisals will inevitably come against those military leaders who dare to do something like this.

35/ "At the same time, Putin’s regime has not yet been able to agree on a truce and continues the war, in which it cannot achieve victory over the enemy through his capitulation." /end

Sources:
🔹 t.me/dva_majors/697…
🔹 t.me/belarusian_sil…
🔹 t.me/romanov_92/468…
🔹 t.me/zhivoff/20137
🔹 t.me/zhivoff/20140
🔹 t.me/apwagner/39545
🔹 t.me/apwagner/39546
🔹 t.me/KvachkovV/4150
🔹 t.me/SergeyKolyasni…

🔹 t.me/mariasergeyeva…
🔹 t.me/pgubarev/1238