The verdict against former FSB officer Igor Girkin (Strelkov) reflects a change in the situation in Russia following the coup attempt by the leader of the Wagner Private Military Company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and is part of broader reprisals against critics of the Kremlin and the ongoing war against Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom reported this on X (Twitter).
As outlined in the summary, Girkin was arrested in July 2023 after the coup attempt by the leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin. In November 2023, Girkin announced his intention to run for the Russian presidency in 2024.
British intelligence considers it highly probable that after the coup attempt, the Kremlin became more sensitive to criticism of its conduct of the war in Ukraine by extreme nationalists, "as they represent one of the few real alternatives to Putin's leadership."
"The verdict against Girkin is part of broader reprisals against those who criticize the Kremlin and the war in Ukraine, reflecting a more authoritarian nature of life in Putin's Russia," the summary states.
As reported by Ukrinform, on January 25, a Moscow city court sentenced former FSB officer and terrorist Igor Girkin (Strelkov) to four years in prison on charges of "incitement to extremism." Girkin was also banned from administering websites for three years.
The prosecution had sought a sentence of four years and 11 months in prison, with the maximum punishment for the offense being five years of imprisonment.
Girkin supported a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but at the same time criticized the Russian army and personally President Vladimir Putin for what he considered insufficiently active actions.
On November 17, 2022, the Hague District Court found former FSB officer, former "Defense Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic" Igor Girkin (Strelkov), General of the GRU of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, head of the "GRU of the Donetsk People's Republic" Sergey Dubinsky, and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko guilty of downing the MH17 flight and killing 298 people. They were sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to pay compensation of 16 million euros.
