The former commander of Russia’s 58th Army -- who had once complained about his forces' lack of support from Moscow -- has been arrested on fraud charges, state-run TASS news agency reported.
TASS, citing unidentified law enforcement officials, on May 21 said a military court had ordered that Major General Ivan Popov be detained for two months amid ongoing actions against current and former military leaders.
Interfax quoted Popov’s lawyer, Sergei Buinovsky, as saying the general has claimed his innocence and has appealed against the detention.
Popov was fired as commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army in Ukraine's occupied Zaporizhzhya region in July after complaining to top officials that his forces were not receiving the proper weapons and reconnaissance systems and that they were not being sufficiently rotated.
The Dva Mayora and Grey Zone Telegram channels reported that the case against Popov is linked to the alleged embezzlement of 100 million rubles ($1.1 million) allocated for military needs in parts of the Zaporizhzhya region.
The reports about Popov's arrest come less than a week after investigators arrested Lieutenant General Yury Kuznetsov, who headed the personnel directorate of Russia's Defense Ministry, in an alleged corruption case.
Kuznetsov’s arrest on May 14 came just two days after President Vladimir Putin relieved his close ally Sergei Shoigu of his duties as defense minister.
In late April, police detained Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov on bribe-taking charges and a court later sent him to pretrial detention for at least two months.
Putin replaced Shoigu with former First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov, 65, a politician who specializes in economic matters. The move is seen as part of a strategy to make the armed forces more streamlined with Russia's invasion of Ukraine now in its third year.
On May 20, Putin appointed Oleg Savelyev, the former minister on Crimean affairs, to the post of deputy defense minister.
The 58-year-old Savelyev also served as deputy minister for economic development and as the auditor at the Audit Chamber, a parliamentary group that serves as a financial watchdog.