Law enforcement officers detained in Moscow the former “Defense Minister” of the self-proclaimed “DNR” Igor Strelkov (Girkin). This is reported by RBC sources and his wife Miroslava Reginskaya.
According to Reginskaya, the detention took place around 11:30. The law enforcers took Strelkov away in an unknown direction. According to preliminary information, he was charged with extremism (Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code).
RBC writes that Strelkov’s apartment is currently being searched.
According to preliminary information, the detention was carried out on the application of a former employee of the Wagner PMC, RBC writes.
Strelkov is now being investigated, TASS reports citing a source in law enforcement agencies.
Strelkov was the “Defense Minister” of the “DNR” in 2014. In November 2022, a court in the Netherlands sentenced Strelkov to life imprisonment after finding him guilty in the case of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing crash in the Donetsk region in 2014.
Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Strelkov has actively criticized Russia’s leadership, including Vladimir Putin, for lacking resolve. In April, he announced the creation of a “club of angry patriots”.
In early July 2023, he held a lecture on the results of the mutiny of the Wagner PMC, wrote Fontanka. The meeting was supposed to take place in the bookstore Listva, but a few hours before it began, law enforcers cordoned off the entrance and evacuated the staff, citing bomb reports. The Listva store reported that police issued a warning to the organizers against actions that could lead to crime, misconduct or anti-social behavior.
