One general — the return of the stolen goods, the other a prison sentence

The Military Court of Cassation of Novosibirsk received a cassation appeal against the sentence of the former commander of the 58th Army, Ivan Popov, who is serving a five-year sentence in a colony near Moscow "for fraud and forgery." Information about this appeared on the court's website today, February 19.

The convict's sentence ends at the end of May 2029. The fate of Popov is closely watched by patriotic bloggers who consider his sentence revenge on the part of the former leadership of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

"I will say for myself and I think for tens of millions of Russians: "Ivan Ivanovich, even if someone in Russia wants to forget you, but Russia will definitely never forget you. You have always been and will always remain a HERO for her, who repelled the most powerful offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in this war," writes one of the most widely read military bloggers (2.9 million subscribers) Yuri Podolyaka.

The news about the cassation in the Popov case looks particularly defiant against the background of today's reports about the lawsuit of the former deputy Defense Minister [under Sergei Shoigu] Timur Ivanov "in connection with ignoring the request to conclude a contract with him." Earlier, Timur Ivanov began to return confiscated property.

As EADaily reported, on February 16, the Moscow Military Garrison Court sentenced retired Rear Admiral Nikolai Kovalenko for embezzling 592 million rubles from the Russian Defense Ministry to 4 years and 6 months in a general regime colony, as well as a fine of 500 thousand rubles. At the same time, due to illness, Kovalenko was released from serving the main sentence and went home instead of the colony.