A Moscow court has ruled that a prominent hard-line nationalist who accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of weakness and indecision in Ukraine should remain in prison on charges of extremism.
Igor Strelkov, a retired security officer who led Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and was convicted of murder in the Netherlands for his role in the downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that year, has argued that a total mobilization is needed for Russia to achieve victory. He has previously criticized Putin as a “nonentity” and a “cowardly mediocrity.”
