Shoigu's ex-deputy Pavel Popov was sentenced to 19 years in prison

He was also accused of bribery through the Bamstroyput company, which Shoigu brought to the Ministry of Defense

The 235th Garrison Military Court sentenced former Deputy Head of the Ministry of Defense Pavel Popov to 19 years in prison in the case of corruption in the construction of the Patriot Park. TASS reports this.

In addition, he was stripped of the rank of colonel general, state awards and fined 85 million rubles.

Popov himself was not present at the announcement of the verdict due to his health condition, said his lawyer Denis Sagach.

Popov was accused of fraud (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code), forgery of official duties (Part 2 of Article 292 of the Criminal Code), illegal trafficking in weapons (Part 1 of Article 222 of the Criminal Code), two episodes of receiving a particularly large bribe (Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code) and three episodes of abuse of office (Part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code).

According to investigators, Popov stole 25 million rubles during the construction of the Patriot park, adding false information about the completion of the work to the estimate. With this money, he forced Patriot contractors to build a two-story residential building, a bathhouse, and a garage on his site at SNT Zvezda near Krasnogorsk; bought furniture and plumbing, installed a fence and a video surveillance system.

In addition, in 2014–2024, he received bribes totaling 45 million rubles from the general director of Bamstroyput OJSC for general patronage during construction work.

The Bamstroyput company also appears in the criminal cases of other members of the team of former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu - his deputies Ruslan Tsalikov and Timur Ivanov and the head of the main personnel department of the ministry Yuri Kuznetsov. They are accused of bribery and theft on government contracts, including through Bamstroyput.

The company itself is now at the stage of bankruptcy, and its chairman of the board of directors, Anton Abdurakhmanov, left Russia and was arrested in absentia.

“Bamstroyput” is a company that was the main contractor of the Ministry of Emergency Situations under the leadership of Sergei Shoigu, and then followed him to contracts with the Ministry of Defense.

The purges around the former head of the Ministry of Defense continue. In March, Vladimir Putin dismissed General Pavel Konovalchik, who served as assistant secretary of the Security Council. He came there after former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in 2024.