The Russian justice system this Thursday sent the prominent Russian nationalist Igor Guirkin, nicknamed Strelkov, to prison for four years, after declaring him guilty of inciting extremism. Guirkin was at the head of the pro-Russian independence forces in the Donbass in 2014 and was currently supporting the Russian military campaign against Ukraine, but in recent times he had turned against the Kremlin.
During the current repression against all voices critical of power, those fined or imprisoned have always been prominent opponents or ordinary citizens who had demonstrated against the Russian military intervention in the neighboring country. This is the first time that someone who supports (and in this case, fervently) the so-called “special military operation” here has been condemned.
Guirkin, 53, had accused Russian President Vladimir Putin and army chiefs of incompetence and failing to effectively direct the military campaign in Ukraine.
Last year he publicly announced his intentions to run in the presidential elections in March 2024 and become one of Putin’s rivals, who will almost certainly renew his mandate.
In the trial, which was held behind closed doors at the Moscow City Court, Guirkin was accused of calling for extremist activities via the internet (his Telegram account).
The convicted man denied all charges. “I serve the country!” he shouted, dressed in black, from the glass cage reserved for the accused.
His lawyer, Alexander Molokhov, told the RBK newspaper that it was an “indecent judicial act that has nothing to do with the administration of justice.” Furthermore, he considered Strelkov’s sentence “as revenge on the part of the people in power.”
Igor Guirkin is a former FSB agent. According to what he himself said in 2013, he had retired from the intelligence service with the rank of colonel.
In 2014 he became one of the organizers of the pro-Russian independence militias of the Donbass that fought against Ukraine, and was even appointed Minister of Defense of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). In this sense, his lawyers said in court that his client was “the legend of the Russian Spring in the Donbass” and that he had “thousands of supporters on the front.”
In recent years he has become better known as a nationalist blogger who expressed himself through his channel on the Telegram messaging application.
From there, although he supported the Russian intervention in Ukraine that Putin began in February 2022, he regularly criticized Russia’s politicians and military commanders, such as Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu; and the head of the General Staff, Valeri Gerasimov.
But he also raised his voice against Putin. Without naming him, in a July message he stated that a “loser” was ruling Russia and that he could not have “six more years of this coward in power.”
In November last year, a Court in The Hague found Guirkin guilty of the downing of the Malasyan Airlines plane MH17, which was shot down by a missile over the Donbass in August 2014 and left 298 dead. He sentenced him to life imprisonment in absentia, since Guirkin refused to participate in the trial sessions.
He was arrested in July 2023, a month after the abortive rebellion of another critic against the army command, the head of the Wagner mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died when his plane exploded in August.
From the provisional detention center, in August he asked his followers to form a platform to launch his nomination for the Russian presidential elections, challenging Putin.