A hard-line critic of Vladimir Putin who accused the Russian president of weakness and indecision in Ukraine has been arrested in Moscow.
Igor Strelkov, a retired security officer who led Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014, was arrested on charges of extremism, a signal the Kremlin has toughened its approach with hawkish critics after last month’s abortive rebellion by the Wagner mercenary company.
Strelkov, who was convicted of murder in the Netherlands for his role in the downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that year, has argued a total mobilization is needed for Russia to achieve victory.
He recently criticized Putin as a “nonentity” and a “cowardly mediocrity.”
Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court ordered the 52-year-old Strelkov, whose real name is Igor Girkin, to be held in custody for two months pending a probe on charges of making calls for extremist activities.
He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
He rejected the charges, but asked the judge to place him under house arrest, citing health issues.
The arrest comes nearly a month after a short-lived mutiny launched by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin saw his Wagner troops capture military headquarters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and then drive as close as 200 kilometers (125 miles) to Moscow to demand the ousting of Russia’s top military leaders.
Prigozhin agreed to end the June 23-24 rebellion under a deal that offered amnesty to him and his mercenaries and allowed them to move to Belarus.
The revolt posed the most serious threat to Putin’s 23-year rule, eroding his authority and exposing government weakness.
Like Prigozhin, Strelkov criticized Russia’s military leaders for incompetence, but also denounced the Wagner’s chief and described his action as treason and a major threat to the Russian state.
The two have traded insults and Strelkov‘s supporters said a criminal inquiry into his statements has been initiated by one of Wagner’s mercenaries.
Strelkov has over 875,000 subscribers on his messaging app channel.
The Club of Angry Patriots, a recently created hard-line group he belonged to, issued a statement protesting his detention as a “provocation” that “undermines the population’s trust in law enforcement organs” and “carries extremely negative consequences for the country’s stability.”
Strelkov long has spoken with contempt about Putin, accusing him of incompetence and kowtowing to Western interests, and he toughened his criticism after the start of Moscow’s action in Ukraine.
He predicted Russia would face imminent defeat because of Putin’s reluctance to declare a massive mobilization and put the country on full military footing.
He warned “the country will not survive another six years under the rule of that cowardly mediocrity,” a reference to Putin’s expected bid to run for another six-year term in a presidential vote in March 2024.
