CNN
One of Russia’s most outspoken generals, [Ivan Popov], sacked and detained after a withering attack on the Defense Ministry two years ago, is returning to the front, according to his lawyer.
But according to Russian state media, he’s been handed a poisoned chalice: front-line command of a notorious battalion of ex-prisoners that has suffered massive casualties in Ukraine.
[Russia Deputy Team Lead and Analyst Kateryna] Stepanenko describes Popov’s assignment as “effectively a death sentence because the Russian military command primarily uses ‘Storm Z’ penal detachments in suicidal frontal assaults.”
“Putin appears to have set up a new redemption system in which disgraced officials and commanders have a chance at regaining Putin’s favor, provided they publicly plead guilty to their charges and then volunteer to fight in Ukraine,” says Stepanenko.
