The Moscow City Court recognized as legal the extension of the preventive measure in the form of arrest for the former Minister of Defense of the DPR, ex-FSB officer Igor Strelkov (real name Girkin), a Vedomosti correspondent reports.
The court refused to satisfy the appeal of Strelkov’s defenders. Thus, he will remain in pre-trial detention until December 18.
The lawyers asked the court to change his preventive measure to a more lenient one, since the investigation did not present any negative characteristics of Girkin. In addition, the accused does not have the opportunity to hide, while he has been diagnosed with health problems. Strelkov himself stated in court that the accusation against him was absurd and his detention was insulting.
The representative of the prosecutor’s office asked the court to leave the preventive measure in the form of detention unchanged. He added that the preliminary investigation into Strelkov’s case has not yet been completed.
Strelkov is accused of public calls for extremist activities on the Internet (Part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In July, the court took him into custody at the request of the FSB Investigation Department for Moscow and the Moscow Region.
In 2014, after the coup in Kyiv, Strelkov became a member of the LPR and DPR militia. From May to August 2014 he was the Minister of Defense of the DPR, and then began to conduct active public activities outside the Donbass. In November 2022, a Dutch court found Strelkov guilty of destroying a Malaysian Boeing on the territory of the DPR in July 2014. Russia did not recognize the court’s decision. Strelkov himself denied the accusations and refused to testify in court.
Strelkov actively supported the Russian army from the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine in his Telegram channel, while he often criticized the course of the special operation and the military leadership. On June 25, he spoke at the Moscow congress of the “Club of Angry Patriots” with his own political program and called for “transferring the country to a war footing.”
