Russia sentences former FSB Officer and "DNR" leader Strelkov to 4 years in prison

Igor Strelkov (Girkin), a former FSB officer and leader of the DPR [the Donetsk People’s Republic, a self-proclaimed and non-recognised state formation in Donetsk Oblast – ed.], has been sentenced to four years in a general-regime penal colony by the Moscow City Court.

Source: Kremlin-aligned media outlet RIA Novosti

Details: The Russian court also banned Strelkov from administering websites for three years. 

Earlier, during the debates, the prosecutor asked to sentence Strelkov to 4 years and 11 months in a general-regime penal – one month less than the maximum possible punishment under this article. 

The hearings were held in a closed mode, but the announcement of the verdict was open.

Background:

• Igor Strelkov (Girkin) has been in pretrial detention since July 2023 in a case related to public calls for extremism. The formal pretext for the case was two posts on Strelkov's Telegram channel concerning occupied Crimea and payments to servicemen in the temporarily occupied Ukraine’s territories. On 14 December, the Moscow City Court began considering Strelkov's case.
• In mid-November, Strelkov asked his associates to start a campaign for his nomination as a candidate for president of the Russian Federation.
• At the beginning of December, Igor Girkin said he was afraid of repeating the fate of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the former leader of the Wagner Group, who was supposedly killed in a plane crash.
• Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, imprisoned by the Russian authorities, claimed that the arrest of Igor Girkin is illegal, adding that Strelkov is a political prisoner.

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