Russian pro-war Putin critic Igor Girkin facing charges of inciting extremism in latest Kremlin crackdown

A prominent Russian hardline nationalist who has accused President Vladimir Putin of weakness and indecision in Ukraine has been detained on charges of extremism.

The move suggests authorities have wearied of former FSB agent and battlefield commander Igor Girkin's criticism of Moscow's invasion, and perhaps that of other loud nationalist voices who had appeared to have exceptional licence to deride the Kremlin and the military.

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.

Prosecutors from the Federal Security Service (FSB) security service asked Moscow's Meshchansky district court to remand Mr Girkin in custody until September on a charge with a maximum sentence of five years in prison, state news agencies reported.

Mr Girkin, also known as Igor Strelkov, helped Russia annex Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and then organise pro-Russian militias who wrested part of eastern Ukraine out of Kyiv's control. He was also 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.

In footage from the Moscow court posted by the popular Telegram channel Shot, often one of the first to air official footage, Mr Girkin stood almost motionless in a glass cage, with his arms folded, staring straight ahead. He had been regarded by many as untouchable due to his history and ties to the authorities, but had become more outspoken in recent months.

Mr Girkin announced in May that he and others had set up the "Club of Angry Patriots" to enter politics to save Russia from what he said was the danger of turmoil due to military failures in Ukraine. Asked at the time if he was naive to think he could 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 his official Telegram channel this week – read by over 760,000 people – Mr Girkin peppered Mr Putin with personal insults and urged him to transfer power "to someone truly capable and responsible".

In a message aboput the dentention posted on Mr Girkin's official Telegram account, his wife, Miroslava Reginskaya, said:

"Today, at about 11.30am representatives of the Investigative Committee came to our house. I was not at home. Soon, according to the concierge, they took my husband out by his arms and in an unknown direction." She said friends had told her Girkin had been charged with extremism.

"I do not know anything about my husband's whereabouts, he has not contacted me," she said.

There was no immediate comment from the authorities. Mr Girkin's lawyer told the state news agency TASS that it was not clear why his client had been detained. RBC, citing two unnamed law enforcement sources, said Mr Girkin's Moscow home was being searched and that he had been detained over a complaint against him made by a former Wagner employee.

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 Mr 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."

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

Reuters