Jul 22: Igor Girkin arrested in Moscow: the Kremlin is clamping down
Igor Girkin arrested in Moscow: the Kremlin is clamping down
Who is Girkin?
Igor Girkin (Strelkov) is an ethno-fascist FSB officer and the warlord who prepared the ground and then launched the war in Donbas in 2014. He stated that without him, “there wouldn’t be any war”. He is also responsible for ordering the execution of numerous civilians, for which he still hasn’t faced justice. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia by the International Criminal Court on November 17, 2022 as perpetrator of the downing of Malaysian Airlines 17 and the murder of 298 people—a war criminal.
Before his leadership in Russia’s war in Donbas, he was a veteran in conflicts in Bosnia, Transnistria, and Chechnya. He then went on to work for Russia’s Federal Security Service (the FSB).
From May to August 2014, Girkin served as the “defense minister” of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DNR), but was replaced after a series of defeats at the front and reportedly because he disagreed with Vladislav Surkov, Putin’s political technologist, over operations in the war in Donbas.
In the fall of 2014, he was the commander of a Russian units that seized the administrative buildings in Sloviansk and other cities in eastern Ukraine. In November 2014, Girkin admitted to the ultraconservative magazine Zavtra that it was the actions of his detachment that caused the war in Donbas:
“I still pulled the trigger of the war. If our detachment had not crossed the border, in the end everything would have ended, as in Kharkov, as in Odessa. There would have been several dozen killed, burned, arrested. And that would be the end of it. And practically the flywheel of the war, which is still going on, launched our detachment.”
In addition, he said that the Russian military was fighting in Ukraine at that moment “on vacation”, undercover, in particular during the offensive on Mariupol:
“Separate units of the militia were subordinate to them. But mostly "vacationers" attacked Mariupol. When they left, both the front line and the opportunities remained unsteady.”
Back in Moscow, he was tasked with setting up a YouTube channel, and later a Telegram channel, to serve as a mouthpiece for Kremlin narratives on a variety of issues. From the very beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he has been actively commenting on the actions of the Russian military leadership. On the second day of the war, Girkin wrote in his Telegram channel:
“General conclusion: much has been achieved, but the main tasks are far from being fulfilled. The pace of the offensive is falling, the final defeat of the enemy is moving away, and the enemy, with his bet on the maximum prolongation of the war, will try to take advantage of any miscalculations. Recommendations: start partial mobilization already, you idiots!”
But even when the “partial” mobilization was announced, he was still dissatisfied with the fact that it was “partial”, and that it should have been enstated from the very beginning. He observed that the borders were not closed, and so men who did not want to fight could leave the country:
“In any normal (including capitalist) country in history, deserters were persecuted mercilessly. I do not remember a single case when the authorities of at least one European state during the 1st and 2nd World Wars were so disregard-loyal about the flight of combat-ready and able-bodied men from mobilization.
Instead of sending them - disgracing them as much as possible - to send them to heavy penal work at the front and in the near rear, or to use them in heavy and hazardous industries (necessary for the army) - we calmly let them out ... THIS IS DAMAGE. AND NOTHING ELSE.”
In May 2022, Girkin uttered his most famous phrase about the "failure of the special operation":
“The whole so-called civilized world, pushing their elbows, is running to help Ukraine: Australia, New Zealand... Three months ago there was no talk that Sweden and Finland were going to join NATO. Now they are not just going. Their entry into NATO is a matter of a matter of days... The issue has already been resolved.
Unfortunately, after all these facts, I must honestly say that if the Kremlin cannot do this, the special military operation has completely failed.”
His criticisms were directed at the Russian Armed Forces leadership over the summer 2022, and at Prigozhin, “the cook”, for his attempted mutiny in June 2023. Girkin wanted the Russian forces to annihilate the Ukrainian forces and put an end to Ukraine, which in his view “does not have the right to exist”.
Kremlin disinformation watcher, Julia Davis, points out that Girkin and his lot are not heroes. Pavel Gubarev, Russia's "DPR" figure in Donetsk, and later co-founder of the Angry Patriots’ Club, was crystal clear about Russia’s intent in Ukraine:
"We aren't coming to kill you, but to convince you. But if you don't want to be convinced, we'll kill you. We'll kill as many as we have to: 1 million, 5 million, or exterminate all of you."
In April 2023, Girkin and Pavel Gubarev founded the Angry Patriots’ Club, an association which he hoped to turn into an official political movement.
“We love Russia. Our country is waging a serious war, but waging it ineptly,” reads the KRP manifesto, published on April 17. The document says that “incompetent organization on strategic, operation, and tactical levels has led Russia into a war of attrition.”
They love an ethno-fascist Russia, and hate Ukraine. The Angry Patriots’ Club believes that the total annihilation of Ukraine as a state should be the goal of Russia’s war of aggression, and on a global scale, Russia is called to fight wars “everywhere”, in every country, in order to bring order.
And then came the arrest…
Girkin finally began to openly criticize Putin and his years of leadership: On July 18, he called him a "cowardly mediocrity", which most likely triggered his arrest:
“For 23 years, a nonentity was at the head of the country, who managed to "throw dust in the eyes" of a significant part of the population. Now it is the last island of legitimacy and stability of the state. To hack it illegally means to "successfully complete" the work of those who seated the Unique Advantage on the throne in due time.
But the country will not survive another six years in power of this cowardly mediocrity. And the only thing he could do usefully “before the end” (so as not to cover his name with eternal disgrace in History, like Gorby the Jew) is to ensure the transfer of power to someone truly capable and responsible. Too bad it didn't even cross his mind. And if it comes, then we have already seen the “ability to choose associates” many times ... "
Putin didn’t order his arrest publicly. The Tsar couldn’t be seen to deal with such low level issues. The official story is that a former deputy from the Yaroslavl regione, Dmitry Petrovsky, submitted a complaint to the Prosecutor General’s Office about Girkin’s July 18 statements, and the Russian authorities acted on it.
In keeping with the Kremlin practice of disseminating more than one story to create confusion, Dmitry Kiselyov on a breaking news segment on Russian TV said:
“The main topic of the day is Igor Strelkov-Girkin shot down a Malaysian Boeing. What a scoundrel, however. How long he led us all by the nose ... "
The Kremlin info-proxies started a campaign against Girkin and others immediately, which was to be expected given the fact that Girkin was no longer useful to the Kremlin. He also broke the golden rule: never challenge the Tsar. Girkin was useful in the last two years as a valve for discontented nationalists over the conduct of the Russian military at the front but he overstepped his mark.
July 21, 2023
Four days after Girkin’s latest screed, Myroslava Renginskaya, his wife, posted a message on Girkin’s Telegram channel, saying that men came to the house and dragged her husband away.
“Today, at about 11:30, representatives of the investigative committee [major crimes unit] came to us. I was not at home at that time. Soon, according to the concierge, they dragged my husband by his arms and took him away in an unknown direction.”
“From friends, I managed to find out that my husband was charged under article 282 fo the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (extremism). I don’t know where my husband is, he has not been in touch. At the time of his arrest, I wasn’t at home.”
In the afternoon, Girkin was charged under Part 2 of Art. 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation—inciting extremism via the Internet—in the Meshchansky Court in Moscow. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
Girkin asked to be granted house arrest in court. He said he suffers from angina pectoris and would not constitute a flight risk:
“The investigator’s statement that I can hide abroad is frankly ridiculous, I am wanted by Interpol in most countries of the world, I have been sentenced by the Hague Tribunal to life imprisonment for a crime that I did not commit,” he said.
The Meshchansky Court granted the prosecution's request and has placed Girkin in custody for two months until September 18.
Police officers also detained co-founder of the Angry Patriots’ Club, Pavel Gubarev, who was outside the court building. He had made a speech in Girkin’s defence, denouncing the court’s decision. Today Limonov's Party coordinator Mikhail Aksel announced that the Club is launching a public political campaign in defense of Girkin, who they have claim is a political prisoner.
The Kremlin is cleaning house
By clamping down on Girkin and other figures of the Angry Patriots’ Club in the coming days, Putin and members of the Kremlin’s inner circle of the security services are trying to strengthen their position. It was a process that had begun much earlier during the war.
Starting in the Summer 2022, the Kremlin began reshuffling top positions within the ranks of the military leadership due to the victory of the Ukrainians in the Battle of Kyiv and then after the liberation of Kherson and other settlements in Ukraine’s northeast. By the looks of it, the current military purge of the higher levels of the Russian armed forces and Girkin’s arrest are a result of the Kremlin’s continuous need to contain criticism, and rid the ranks of dissent.
Girkin’s close ally and member of the Angry Patriots’ Club, Colonel of the GRU, Vladimir Kvachkov, was accused of discrediting the Russian Armed Forces. A Prigozhin ally, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, has been interrogated by Russian investigators as well as his deputy Andriy Yudin. Surovikin hasn’t been seen in public since his video address on June 24 directed at Prigozhin’s march towards Moscow. The purge, however, extends beyond Prigozhin’s associates and the Angry Patriots’ Club.
Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov (“Spartak” to his soldiers), a respected commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army, leading the forces in the south, said in a leaked audio message that he had been fired after criticizing the leaders of the Defense Ministry. He had tried to outline “all the problems existing in the army” to his superiors “at the very top”, detailing the shortages of supplies and the dire conditions of the Russian forces on the frontlines. Popov then accused them of “treacherously and vilely decapitating the army at the most difficult and tense moment.”
Since the mutiny, at least 13 high-ranking officers have been hauled in for questioning, some of whom have since been released, and another 15 were suspended, fired altogether, or have gone missing, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Some are well-known names: Colonel-General Mykhailo Mizintsev (the Butcher of Mariupol), and the deputy head of military intelligence, Volodymyr Alekseev, were arrested. Major-General Alexander Kornev was removed as commander of the 7th Airborne Assault Division, as well as Maj. Gen. Vladimir Seliverstov, commander of the Tula Airborne Division, Colonel-General Mikhail Teplinskiy, Major-General Ramil Ibatullin, commander of the 90th Panzer Division, and two of Ibatullin’s deputies who have been detained on accusations of the misuse of funds.
On balance, Girkin’s arrest comes as the Kremlin attempts to weed out who can or cannot be trusted in the ranks but the clampdown will also enrage Girkin’s ethno-fascist followers. For the Kremlin, Girkin can be used as a cautionary tale for anyone who attempts to challenge Putin’s power and his conduct of the war.
While some Russian watchers believe Putin has fortified his grasp on Russia even further, Western intelligence sees Prigozhin’s mutiny and its fallout as an opportunity. It’s a moment of flux and disarray within the ranks of the military. At a recent event at the Ditchley Foundation in the UK, CIA chief William Burns said that the war against Ukraine was having a "corrosive" effect on Putin's leadership of Russia, and believes it may be providing a chance for American intelligence to gather insights into Russia. Putin’s position will not improve with the war: on the contrary, the "disaffection with the war will continue to gnaw away at the Russian leadership” Burns concluded.
Clearly, the victory of Ukraine in the war, the liberation of its territory and people will most likely spell the end of Putin’s power in Russia, and most Western leaders are beginning to game what that could bring. Putin’s “cowardly mediocrity” and the current confusion within the ranks of the military should be exploited as much as possible by ramping up weaponry and supplies for Ukraine’s counteroffensive and closing the loopholes that allow Russia to arm its wavering and disaffected troops at the front.
Wow! Lot’s happening
Tremendous reporting. Each time you report on a “group of Ukrainian orphans” being transferred from their country into Russia -- I shudder. It’s a terrifying pattern. How to remedy this?