Resident of Kaliningrad. On 6 May 2022, his home was searched and after a video was made public in which Popov says that around 2008 yaer he "got in touch with the commander of the Kaluga branch of Right Sector, Leonid Butusin". At the same time, as noted by the Novy Kaliningrad edition, Right Sector emerged only in 2013 and there were no reports of a branch of the banned organisation in the Kaluga region. Leonid Butusin is the son of Right Sector activist Oleg Butusin, who was killed in Ukraine in April. Popov was arrested. He was previously an activist of the Baltic Vanguard of Russian Resistance movement, whose other members were sentenced to real prison terms in 2020 in a case on extremist community activities. Popov's acquaintance Anastasia Nekhaeva, whose appartment was searched as part of the criminal case, claimed in a conversation with Mediazona that he opposed the war, but never said anything about ties with nationalist associations in Kaliningrad. Popov himself did not admit guilt at first, but later changed his testimony. On 29 March 2023, he was sentenced to nine years in a strict regime colony. On 24 July, the court of appeal reduced the sentence by three months.

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