Professional-war Putin critic Igor Girkin charged with inciting extremism

Russian authorities arrested nationalist pro-war blogger this week and charged him with extremism only a few days after he referred to as Vladimir Putin a “cowardly bum.”

Igor Girkin, 52, was arrested by Federal Safety Service (FSB) brokers at his residence in Moscow on Friday morning, his spouse, Miroslava Reginskaya wrote on Telegram.

“From buddies, I managed to seek out out that my husband was charged underneath article 282 of the Felony Code of the Russian Federation (extremism),” she stated.

Girkin, who additionally goes by Igor Strelkov, later appeared stone-faced in court docket, the place prosecutors requested the decide to remand him on a cost with a most five-year jail sentence.

As a battlefield commander, Girkin performed a key position in Russia’s seize of Crimea in 2014 – a transfer now seen by many as important foreshadowing of the continued conflict that began in February 2022.

He was convicted of mass homicide by a Dutch court docket for his alleged position within the downing of Malaysian Airways flight MH17 in jap Ukraine, which resulted within the deaths of 298 folks.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine final yr, Girkin has been a controversial voice on the conflict.

He’s stridently supportive of the brutal invasion, however incessantly criticizes Putin and the Russian army for perceived failures and setbacks, CNN noted.

On Tuesday, he went as far as to name the Russian president a “lowlife” in a scathing Telegram submit.

“Now [Putin] is the final island of legitimacy and stability of the state,” Girkin wrote.

“However the nation won’t be able to face up to one other six years of this cowardly bum in energy.”

Girkin additionally had phrases for Putin after the June 24 Wagner mutiny.

“[If Putin] isn’t able to take the management over the creation of war-ready circumstances then he actually must switch the powers, however legally, to somebody who’s able to such laborious work,” he fired off on the time.

Along with his fiery on-line posts, Girkin additionally co-founded the ultra-nationalist Indignant Patriots Membership in Might.

“[Girkin] brazenly and fairly criticized the actions of presidency officers, together with the president,” members of the membership wrote on Girkin’s Telegram channel on Friday.

“We imagine that right now’s detention undermines the boldness of the nation’s inhabitants in regulation enforcement companies, that it’s a continuation of the dishonest combat in opposition to [Girkin] and has extraordinarily unfavorable penalties for the steadiness of the nation within the circumstances of the North-Jap Navy District.”

Girkin was allegedly searched and detained following a grievance from a former Wagner worker, the state information company RBC stated.

Tatiana Stanovaya, founding father of the R.Politik evaluation agency, stated that higher-ups within the Kremlin have been gunning for Girkin’s arrest for a very long time.

“Strelkov (Girkin) had overstepped all conceivable boundaries a very long time in the past,” she claimed.

“This can be a direct final result of Prigozhin’s mutiny: the military’s command now wields higher political leverage to quash its opponents within the public sphere.”

With Put up wires