He was taken from his residence in Moscow by safety brokers on Friday and charged with “extremist activity,” in line with state media and a submit on his Telegram account attributed to his spouse.
Girkin, who additionally goes by the nom de guerre Igor Strelkov, is among the many best-known of Russia’s “milbloggers”, a bunch of battle correspondents who help the invasion however have grown more and more important of the army’s faltering operations in Ukraine.
Girkin had in latest months taken his criticisms to a different stage, lambasting the Russian state and even Putin himself.
He co-founded an ultra-nationalist political group known as the Angry Patriots Club this spring, and informed Reuters that Russia was “on the cusp of very grave internal political changes of a catastrophic character”.
The day after Wagner’s temporary rebel ended, on June 25, Girkin mentioned that if Putin “is not ready to take the leadership over the creation of war-ready conditions” in Russia, “then he really needs to transfer the powers, but legally, to someone who is capable of such hard work”.
But the ultimate straw for Putin could have come on Tuesday, when Girkin known as the president a “lowlife” and a “cowardly bum” in a blistering submit on his Telegram channel.
“For 23 years, the country was led by a lowlife who managed to ‘blow dust in the eyes’ of a significant part of the population. Now he is the last island of legitimacy and stability of the state,” the submit learn.
“But the country will not be able to withstand another six years of this cowardly bum in power.”
Miroslava Reginskaya, Girkin’s spouse, mentioned within the Telegram assertion attributed to her that brokers of Russia’s Investigative Committee arrived at their condo at 11.30am native time on Friday and took him away “to an unknown route”.
State news company Ria Novosti later reported that Girkin had been charged with inciting extremist exercise, citing the Meshchansky Court of Moscow.
“Strelkov is charged with Part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public calls for extremist activity),” the courtroom mentioned, in line with Ria.
If discovered responsible, Girkin could possibly be sentenced to as much as 5 years in jail.
Another submit on Girkin’s Telegram account, attributed to his “associates,” mentioned that his arrest Friday coincided with an try to separate the Angry Patriots Club over differing opinions about Wagner and its tried rebellion in Russia in June, which posed essentially the most important problem to Putin since he took energy greater than 20 years in the past.
Girkin “openly and reasonably criticised the actions of government officials, including the president,” the assertion from his associates learn.
They mentioned that confidence in Russia’s “freedom of speech” was being compromised, and that “processes are taking place in our country that indicate the departure of government representatives from basic values”.
Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow on the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, mentioned that Girkin had “overstepped all conceivable boundaries a long time ago,” and that his arrest was the results of the Ministry of Defence reasserting management within the wake of the Wagner insurrection.
“This is a direct outcome of [Yevgeny] Prigozhin’s mutiny,” she mentioned on Twitter, referring to the Wagner boss.
“The army’s command now wields greater political leverage to quash its opponents in the public sphere.
“It’s unlikely that there will likely be huge repressions towards ‘indignant patriots,’ however essentially the most vehement dissenters could face prosecution, serving as a cautionary story for others.”
Girkin is a former colonel in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and served as defence minister in the separatist so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine, territory captured by pro-Russian forces in 2014.
It was during his time in the DPR that he contributed to the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, a court in the Netherlands found.
All 298 people onboard were killed.
The court last year found Girkin guilty of mass murder for his role in the incident and he was sentenced in absentia to life in prison.
According to the court, Girkin participated in the conflicts in Chechnya, Transnistria and Bosnia.
Girkin was remanded in custody until September 18 following his arrest on Friday, after the judge rejected his request to be placed under house arrest due to an apparent heart condition.
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The prosecution said Girkin was a flight risk citing his connections to law enforcement agencies, Russian media also reported.
In his statement to court, the prominent blogger argued he could not flee abroad, calling the claims “frankly ridiculous”.
His detention comes just three days after Russian state media TASS reported that retired Russian colonel Vladimir Kvachkov, an associate of Girkin’s, was facing criminal prosecution for “discrediting the Russian Armed Forces”.
While TASS did not specify which of Kvachkov’s comments sparked the charges, Kvachkov has also been openly critical of Putin, describing his government is “nearly non-existent” in on-camera remarks at an Angry Patriots event following the Wagner rebellion last month.
Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence later claimed Girkin’s arrest signals there could be growing disputes within the Kremlin.
“The challenge isn’t with Girkin himself, who has by no means acted as an unbiased determine earlier than.
“Neither have many other military correspondents or military bloggers, or members of Girkin’s group.
“These usually are not unbiased figures,” a representative for Ukraine’s defence intelligence, AndriŃ– Yusov, told Ukrainian broadcasters on Friday.
Yusov went on to say it was “paradoxical” that Girkin had been arrested but not Wagner founder Prigozhin.
“Prigozhin was marching on Moscow and capturing down airplanes and helicopters, however Girkin is the one who received detained,” he said.
“This is a particular characteristic of the Putin regime.”
“This all means that the members of the Kremlin towers are already coming to an lively part of inside confrontation,” he added, without providing evidence.
Source: www.9news.com.au
