July 22, 2023, 9:28 AM
July 22, 2023, 9:28 AM
The Russian justice opened a case for “extremism” against an influential nationalist blogger and former separatist leader of eastern Ukraine, Igor Girkin, who recently vehemently criticized Putin. Girkin was a key figure in the pro-Russian insurgency when the conflict between kyiv and separatists in eastern Ukraine broke out in 2014. In one of his most recent posts, he urged Putin to hand over power to a successor.
Igor Girkin, also known by his alias Igor Strelkovsupports the current offensive in Ukraine, but has criticized the management carried out by the Russian power, through his Telegram account, where he has some 875,000 followers.
In 2022 Girkin was one of three people sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by a Dutch courtfor his role in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014.
With the opening of this case, the Russian authorities send a firm message regarding criticism of power, four weeks after the brief rebellion led by the Wagner paramilitary group.
Girkin appeared this Friday behind a partition in a Moscow court, confirmed AFP. He is accused of “public calls to carry out extremist activities”, for which he faces a sentence of five years in prison.
In a message on social networks, his wife, Miroslava Reginskaya, He had announced that he was arrested for “extremism”, which was later confirmed by the courts.
Girkin, 52, is a former military commander of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
In recent years, Girkin became one of the most critical voices with Putin and his way of managing the military campaign in Ukraine.
“The country will not survive another six years of cowardly mediocrity in power,” he wrote on Telegram, where he has more than 800,000 followers.
