Former separatist commander and nationalist army blogger Igor Girkin, a frequent critic of Russia‘s management, was arrested on Friday and remanded in custody awaiting trial on expenses of extremism.
Girkin — higher recognized by his alias Igor Strelkov — is a supporter of the Ukraine offensive but in addition repeatedly criticised its conduct on the messaging app Telegram, the place he was adopted by round 875,000 folks.
By opening a case towards him, observers mentioned authorities have been sending a sign that any criticism — even from supporters of the army operation in Ukraine — are off-limits within the aftermath of the Wagner mercenary group‘s short-lived revolt.
A Moscow court docket ordered Girkin to be positioned in detention pending trial on expenses of “public calls for extremism” that might land him in jail for 5 years.
“Justice in our country, once again, has not triumphed” his lawyer Alexander Molokhov instructed reporters exterior the Meshchansky Court in Moscow.
Molokhov mentioned the defence would attraction the court docket’s resolution and defined the case towards his consumer was based mostly on two social media posts through which Girkin mentioned Russian-annexed Crimea and armed forces provides.
Several dozen supporters gathered across the court docket, with no less than one detained.
“The repressive machine has gone into full gear, this is an excuse to knock him out from public work,” mentioned Pavel Gubarev, head of the “Club of Angry Patriots” that Girkin co-founded.
‘A PATRIOT’
Shortly earlier than being detained, Gubarev mentioned Girkin’s supporters would battle utilizing all authorized means.
“Igor Ivanovich Strelkov isn’t just not an extremist: he is a patriot who has gone through five wars in the interests of Russia.”
A former FSB colonel, Girkin was one of many key figures within the pro-Kremlin insurgency when combating broke out in japanese Ukraine in 2014.
Girkin dominated the then-rebel stronghold of Sloviansk with an iron fist, with executions for petty theft reportedly carried out beneath his rule.
But he was squeezed out of the separatist management later that 12 months beneath mysterious circumstances and returned to Russia, the place he misplaced all affect, till the offensive started.
In 2022, he was certainly one of three males sentenced by a Dutch court docket to life imprisonment over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014.
Girkin got here again to the highlight after the start of the offensive, turning into one of the vocal critics of Putin and of the best way through which Russia’s offensive in Ukraine has been performed.
‘CONSEQUENCES OF THE REBELLION’
In certainly one of his most up-to-date posts Girkin urged Putin handy over energy to a successor.
“The country will not survive another six years of this cowardly mediocrity in power,” he wrote on Telegram.
Independent political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya mentioned Girkin had “long crossed all possible red lines”.
But his detention comes round a month after the tried mutiny by the mercenary group Wagner led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, from which the Kremlin emerged visibly weakened.
Prigozhin was probably the most strident voice for these inside Russia criticising failures in Russia’s marketing campaign and the methods utilized by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and armed forces chief Valery Gerasimov.
Girkin denounced Prigozhin’s mutiny however stored on criticising the incompetence of Russia’s typical army commanders.
The case towards Girkin “is one of the consequences of Prigozhin’s rebellion: the army received more political opportunities to suppress its opponents in the public space,” Stanovaya mentioned.
She didn’t anticipate mass arrests however mentioned: “The most radical ones may be prosecuted, so that the rest will be more careful.”
Criticism of Russia’s assault on Ukraine has been outlawed and all key liberal opposition figures are both behind bars or in exile.
“The authorities decided that uncontrolled ultra-patriots are no less dangerous than the extra-systemic liberal opposition,” mentioned political analyst Ilya Gerashchenkov.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
