Former separatist commander and nationalist military blogger Igor Girkin, a frequent critic of Russia's leadership, was arrested on Friday and remanded in custody awaiting trial on charges of extremism.
Girkin -- better known by his alias Igor Strelkov -- is a supporter of the Ukraine offensive but also regularly criticised its conduct on the messaging app Telegram, where he was followed by around 875,000 people.
"Justice in our country, once again, has not triumphed" his lawyer Alexander Molokhov told reporters outside the Meshchansky Court in Moscow. A former FSB colonel, Girkin was one of the key figures in the pro-Kremlin insurgency when fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014. In 2022, he was one of three men sentenced by a Dutch court to life imprisonment over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014.
Independent political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya said Girkin had "long crossed all possible red lines". Girkin denounced Prigozhin's mutiny but kept on criticising the incompetence of Russia's conventional military commanders.
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