(Adnkronos) – An exemplary sentence in Russia. Former Russian Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Popov has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for corruption by the Moscow military court as part of the clean-up operation at the Ministry of Defense starting in spring 2024, two years after the start of the war against Ukraine, which did not yield expected results, and following the government reshuffle after that year’s presidential elections, with Sergei Shoigu’s removal from the post of Defense Minister, with a so far soft landing for him at the National Security Council.
Popov, 69, was found guilty of embezzling the equivalent of $300,000, taken from funds allocated for the construction of the patriotic military park on the outskirts of Moscow, Moscow’s ‘military Disneyland,’ to renovate his property in Krasnogorsk between 2021 and 2024. Popov also had his military ranks and all his awarded honors revoked.
About a dozen high-ranking officers, mainly belonging to Shoigu’s inner circle at the ministry, have since been involved in judicial proceedings where widespread corruption in the defense apparatus is attributed to a single group. Last month, former Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov, considered very close to Shoigu, was arrested, becoming the fourth deputy defense minister or former deputy defense minister to be implicated. The first to fall, in April 2024, was then Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, later sentenced to 13 years in prison for corruption and money laundering.
