 "Major General Ivan Popov, former commander of Russia's 58th army, arrested on suspicion of fraud, attends a hearing at the military court in Moscow, Russia May 27, 2024. Reuters")
Two years after publicly denouncing Russia’s military leadership and finding himself disgraced, detained and facing jail, Major General Ivan Popov has made a comeback. He is returning to the battlefield. But his comeback is less triumph than coercion— what some military observers are calling a de facto death sentence.
Why, though?
Once hailed as a decorated commander of Russia’s 58th Combined Arms Army in Ukraine, Popov now finds himself reportedly tasked with leading one of the Russian military’s most expendable units: a battalion made up of former convicts, notorious for its heavy casualties and suicide-style assaults, CNN reported.
A general’s fall from grace
In July 2023, Popov, in a voice message to his comrades, accused the Defence Ministry— particularly chief-of-staff Valery Gerasimov— of failing frontline troops and punishing commanders who dared to raise operational concerns.
“The armed forces of Ukraine could not break through our army from the front, (but) our senior commander hit us from the rear, treacherously and vilely decapitating the army at the most difficult and tense moment,” Popov said at the time, warning that he had been dismissed for exposing shortages in artillery and equipment.
The comments, delivered less than a month after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed Wagner mutiny, landed hard in a military already on edge. While many serving officers and pro-war commentators supported Popov’s critique, the Kremlin responded with swift retribution. Popov was transferred to Syria, then arrested in May 2024 on charges of fraud— charges he continues to deny. Prosecutors had been seeking a six-year sentence.
From prisoner to front-line commander
Now, following a letter to President Vladimir Putin in which he declared the Russian leader his “moral guide and role model,” Popov is being allowed back into military service.
But the apparent reprieve comes with strings attached. According to the Russian newspaper Kommersant, Popov won’t be returning to command the elite 58th Army. Instead, he has been tapped to lead a Storm Z battalion— units composed of convicts recruited from Russian prisons, often with little regard for casualties or survival rates.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsWhether Popov’s gambit will save him—politically or literally—remains uncertain. His case still awaits confirmation from a military court.