Pro-war nationalist Putin critic Girkin charged with inciting extremism

By Andrew Osborn

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Prominent Russian nationalist Igor Girkin, who had publicly accused President Vladimir Putin and the army top brass of not pursuing the war in Ukraine harshly or effectively enough, was remanded in custody on Friday on charges of inciting extremism.

The arrest of a man the West regards as a war criminal suggests authorities have wearied of his criticism of what they call Russia's "special military operation", and perhaps of other loud nationalist voices who had appeared to have exceptional licence to deride the war effort.

It follows an abortive mutiny last month led by another outspoken critic, Yevgeny Prigozhin, boss of the Wagner mercenary force, who is still free but has sharply curtailed his own verbal attacks.

A Moscow court remanded Girkin, 52, in investigative custody until Sept. 18 after he was seized by his ex-employer, the FSB state security service. The charge brought by prosecutors carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, state news agencies TASS and RIA reported.

Girkin denies the accusations against him - reported to centre on two outbursts he posted on the Telegram app - and is refusing to cooperate with investigators, the Interfax news agency reported.

Alexander Molokhov, his lawyer, told reporters that he would appeal the decision to remand his client in custody. The lawyer complained he had not been given enough time to familiarise himself with the charges against Girkin, which he said amounted to a procedural violation.

Britain's defence ministry, in a regular intelligence update on Saturday, said the arrest was "likely to infuriate fellow members of the military blogger community, who largely see Girkin as an astute military analyst and patriot".

Girkin, a former FSB officer and battlefield commander also known as Igor Strelkov, helped Russia to annex Crimea in 2014 and, soon after, to organise pro-Russian militias who wrested part of eastern Ukraine out of Kyiv's control - events that started Russia's war on Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials and Western human rights groups accused him of committing war crimes there, something he denied.

He was handed a life sentence in absentia by a Dutch court in 2022 for his alleged role in the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, with the loss of 298 passengers and crew. He denied wrongdoing at the time.

In footage from court posted by the popular Telegram channel Shot, Girkin stood almost motionless in a glass cage, with his arms folded, staring straight ahead.

Police detained at least two of his supporters outside the court building, a Reuters reporter said. One of them had been repeating Girkin’s own criticisms of the war in Ukraine and a woman who had been holding a sign saying “The Truth is Power”.

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Girkin had been regarded by many as untouchable due to his history and ties to the authorities, but had become more outspoken in recent months.

Girkin announced in May that he and others had set up the "Club of Angry Patriots" to save Russia from what he said was the danger of systemic turmoil, due to military failures in Ukraine and jostling in the elite to eventually succeed Putin.

Asked at the time if he was naive to launch a political movement without the assent of the Kremlin, he said: "I hope you would not call me a naive person."

In one of his most outspoken tirades, in a post on July 18 on his official Telegram channel, followed by more than 760,000 people, Girkin peppered Putin with personal insults and urged him to pass power "to someone truly capable and responsible".

The RBC news outlet, citing two unnamed law enforcement sources, said Girkin's Moscow home had been searched.

Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of the R.Politik analysis firm, said the men who run Russia's law enforcement and power ministries had long wanted to arrest Girkin.

"Strelkov (Girkin) had overstepped all conceivable boundaries a long time ago," she said. "This is a direct outcome of Prigozhin's mutiny: the army's command now wields greater political leverage to quash its opponents in the public sphere."

Stanovaya said Girkin's detention was a signal that any of the bitterest critics of Moscow's approach to the war could face prosecution.

(Reporting by Andrew OsbornAdditional reporting by Urvi Dugar in BengaluruEditing by David Holmes, Stephen Coates and Frances Kerry)