During the debate in the Moscow City Court, the prosecution asked the former “Minister of Defense of the DPR” Igor Strelkov (Girkin) for four years and 11 months in a general regime colony in the case of calls for extremism on the Internet. Lawyer Alexander Molokhov spoke about this.
The court will announce Strelkov’s sentence on January 25 at 14:00, the lawyer added.
The bailiffs at the Moscow City Court did not let the journalists and supporters of Strelkov pass beyond the dressing room, explaining that since the case was secret, they could not even be near the hall where the trial was taking place.
Igor Strelkov was detained on July 21, 2023 and sent in a pre-trial detention center because of two posts on his Telegram channel, in which the FSB found calls for extremism (Part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code). Strelkov himself asked to be placed under house arrest due to diagnosed second-degree angina pectoris and the need to take medications.
Igor Strelkov (Girkin), August 29, 2023. Photo: Alexandra Astakhova/Mediazona
By According to the lawyer, the publications spoke about the “Crimean issues” and about “the disgrace if monetary allowances are not paid.”
Strelkov’s associates called his detention a “provocation” and undermining “the trust of the country’s population in law enforcement agencies.” In August, they tried to coordinate with the mayor's office an action in front of the Moscow City Court building, but they were refused, citing restrictions due to the coronavirus.
In an interview with the newspaper Zavtra, Strelkov said that it was he who “pulled the trigger of the war » in 2014. He claimed that before these events he fought in Chechnya, Transnistria and Bosnia, from 1996 to 2003 he served in the FSB, and in 2014 he commanded a separatist detachment during the annexation of Crimea.
In November 2022, a court in The Hague sentenced Strelkov in absentia to life imprisonment, finding him guilty of involvement in the crash of Boeing MH17, shot down in 2014 in the skies over Donbass.
After the outbreak of a full-scale war In Ukraine, Strelkov began to criticize the Russian leadership and Putin for lack of decisiveness. In April, he announced the creation of a “club of angry patriots.”
Updated at 4:39 p.m.Added sentencing date.