Russia's Investigative Committee said on August 29 that it has launched a probe on fraud charges against former Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Popov, part of an ongoing campaign against top military officials.
The Investigative Committee added that Popov, who is a general in the Russian Army, was detained.*
Popov, who was sacked from the post in June after serving 11 years as a deputy defense minister, is suspected of illegal enrichment via fraudulent activities linked to his supervision of the operations of the Defense Ministry's Patriot Park near Moscow in 2021-24.
Investigators say Popov carried out his alleged illegal activities along with Patriot Park Director Vyacheslav Akhmedov and the deputy chief of the Defense Ministry's Department for Innovative Development, Major General Vladimir Shesterov.
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Both Akhmedov and Shesterov were arrested in early August on embezzlement charges.
According to the Investigative Committee, Popov is suspected of organizing construction and repair works at his property near Moscow using finances allocated for the Patriot Park.
"Investigations revealed that...Popov and members of his family also own multiple properties in prestigious sites in Moscow, the Moscow region, and the Krasnodar Krai," the committee said.
The value of the buildings involved is more than 500 million rubles ($5,463,000), the Investigative Committee's statement said, adding that the legality of the ownership of the buildings is being investigated.
Several top military and Defense Ministry officials have been arrested on corruption charges since President Vladimir Putin dismissed close ally Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in May and replaced him with former First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov.
Patriot Park was launched in 2016 and occupies more than 3,500 hectares. It includes military museums, a site for the reconstruction of historic battles, and the military's main Russian Orthodox cathedral, the Cathedral of Christ's Resurrection.
Some media reports said the construction and development of the park was supervised by Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov.
Ivanov, who holds the rank of major general, was arrested in April on bribe-taking charges. He pleaded not guilty. Shortly after his arrest, two businessmen -- Sergei Borodin and Aleksandr Fomin -- were also arrested in the case.
In mid-May, the chief of the Defense Ministry's Main Human Resources Department, Lieutenant General Yury Kuznetsov, was also arrested on bribe-taking charges.
On May 21, Major General Ivan Popov (no relation to Pavel Popov), the former commander of Russia's 58th Army who once complained about his forces' lack of support from Moscow, was arrested on fraud charges. Last month, he was transferred to house arrest.
On May 22, a Moscow court sent to pretrial detention the deputy chief of the armed forces' General Staff, Lieutenant General Vadim Shamarin, on bribery charges.
Also in May, investigators arrested Vladimir Verteletsky, a top official of the Defense Ministry's Department for Handling Armament Orders, on a charge of abuse of power.
Last month, Russian officials confirmed the sudden death of Ivanov's direct subordinate, Magomed Khandayev, in June.