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Ex-Russian deputy defense minister Popov sentenced to 19 years in corruption case

Along with the 19-year term and the 85-million-ruble fine, Pavel Popov was stripped of his military title of Army General and banned from taking government positions for seven years

Pavel Popov Sergey Bulkin/TASS

Pavel Popov

© Sergey Bulkin/TASS

MOSCOW, April 10. /TASS/. A military court has sentenced former Russian Deputy Defense Minister and retired Army General Pavel Popov to 19 years in a maximum-security penal colony and a substantial fine on charges of corruption, taking bribes, and abuse of office, a TASS correspondent reported from the courtroom.

Along with the 19-year term and the 85-million-ruble ($1.102 million) fine, Popov, 69, was stripped of his military title of Army General and banned from taking government positions for seven years.

Apart from that, the court confiscated 45.6 million rubles ($591,296) from Popov to fund the Russian budget. The court also recovered 18.2 million rubles ($235,961) from Popov and his accomplices, Vladimir Shesterov and Vyacheslav Akhmedov, for transfer to the defense ministry, and 7.9 million rubles ($102,494) from Popov also for the defense ministry, and 6.7 million rubles ($86,926) from Popov, Shesterov, and Akhmedov to fund Patriot Park. In addition, Popov's property worth 10 million rubles ($129,733), cash worth more than 33 million rubles (over $428,000), and luxury watches worth more than 6 million rubles ($77,848) were seized.

According to investigators, in 2022-2024, Popov and Shesterov, a former deputy chief of the defense ministry’s innovation development directorate who was director of the Patriot military-patriotic park of culture and recreation at that time, embezzled millions of budgetary funds in a contruction scheme for the park. Apart from that, in 2022-2024, Popov was bribed by OAO Bamstroiput construction company director, who gave him free stay at an apartment and a car free of charge. The bribe’s sum, based on the cost of a ten-year rent of the apartment and car, was estimated at 45 million rubles ($583,864).

Popov was also found guilty of illegally employing and dismissing Patriot personnel, with losses to the state estimated at 8 million rubles ($103,798). Popov, Akhmedov, and Shesterov’s property was arrested in the sum of 100 million rubles ($1.298 million) to recover the fine, civil proceedings, and other property damage claims.

Akhmedov and Shesterov signed plea agreements and were sentenced to five and six years in a colony, respectively.

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