Igor Girkin
Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin (Russian: И́горь Все́володович Ги́ркин, IPA: [ˈiɡərʲ ˈfsʲevələdəvʲɪdʑ ˈɡʲirkʲɪn];[a] born 17 December 1970),[1] also known by the alias Igor Ivanovich Strelkov (Russian: И́горь Ива́нович Стрелко́в, IPA: [ˈiɡərʲ ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ strʲɪlˈkof]), is a Russian political prisoner, army veteran and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who played a key role in the Russian annexation of Crimea, and then in the Donbas War as an organizer of militant groups in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).[2][3][4]
In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Vsevolodovich and the family name is Girkin.
Igor Girkin
Girkin admitted responsibility for sparking the Donbas War in eastern Ukraine when, in April 2014, he led a group of armed Russian militants who seized Sloviansk.[5] His role in the siege gained him influence and attention, and he was appointed to the position of Minister of Defense in the Donetsk People's Republic, a puppet state of Russia.[4][6] Girkin was charged with terrorism by Ukrainian authorities.[7] He has also been sanctioned by the European Union, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Canada and Switzerland for his leading role in the war in eastern Ukraine.[8][9]
Girkin was dismissed from his position in August 2014, after 298 civilians were killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by Russian-backed militants. Dutch prosecutors charged Girkin and three others with mass murder,[10][11][12] and issued an international arrest warrant against him.[13] Girkin admits "moral responsibility" but denies pushing the button.[14] On 17 November 2022, Girkin was found guilty for the murder of 298 people, convicted of all charges in absentia, and issued a life sentence.[15]
Girkin is a self-described Russian nationalist. After his service in the war, he returned to Russia in 2014 as a political activist, reportedly calling for the "liberal elite" to be destroyed and be replaced by militarists and securocrats.[16][17]
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Girkin regained attention as a milblogger, taking a strong pro-war stance but criticizing the Russian military for what he saw as incompetence and "insufficiency".[18] In October 2022, Girkin briefly joined a volunteer unit fighting against Ukrainian forces.[19] In April 2023, Girkin, alongside some fellow Russian nationalists joined the Club of Angry Patriots, a hardline pro-war group.[20] He began criticizing Vladimir Putin for incompetence and on 21 July 2023 was arrested by Russian authorities on charges of extremism.[21] Girkin was convicted in January 2024 of inciting extremism and sentenced to four years' imprisonment.
Early life
Girkin was born in Moscow, Russia,[22] on December 17, 1970.[1]
According to The New York Times, "his ideological rigidity precedes any connections he has to Russia's security services, stretching back at least to his days at the Moscow State Institute for History and Archives. There, Girkin obsessed over military history and joined a small but vocal group of students who advocated a return to monarchism."[22]
Vice News reported that "during the 1990s, Girkin wrote for the right-wing Russian newspaper Zavtra, which is run by the anti-Semitic Russian nationalist Alexander Prokhanov" and where Alexander Borodai was an editor.[23] Writing for Zavtra ("Tomorrow"), Girkin and Borodai, who too was reported to have fought for Russia-backed Transnistria and Republika Srpska separatists in Moldova[24] and Bosnia and Herzegovina, together covered the Russian war against separatists in Chechnya[24] and Dagestan.[25]
He would also often write as a "Colonel in the Reserves" on Middle East subjects, such as the conflicts in Libya, Egypt and Syria, and for the Abkhazian Network News Agency (ANNA), a Russian-language pro-Russian publication which supports Abkhazian separatism in Georgia.[25]
Civilian life in Russia (2014–2022)
In late April 2014, "Strelkov" was identified by Ukrainian intelligence as Colonel Igor Girkin, registered as a resident of Moscow.[76] Journalists visiting the apartment where he allegedly lived with his former wife and two sons, as well as his mother and sister.[124] talked to neighbors who described Girkin as "polite" and quiet.[23]
Girkin claims that he worked as a security chief for the controversial Russian businessmen Konstantin Malofeev. The Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic Alexander Borodai was also a close associate of the businessman.[125][126]
According to the 2022 Bellingcat investigation, Girkin was using a Russian internal passport issued in the fictional name of Sergey Viktorovich Runov.[127][128] Runov was the surname of his maternal grandfather, as well as the maiden name of his mother (as Runova).[127][129] Passports from the same series have been used by several FSB operatives, including Zelimkhan Khangoshvili murderer Vadim Krasikov and members of the FSB squad involved in the poisoning of Alexei Navalny.[127][128]
Andrey Piontkovsky adduces Girkin's name among those of like-minded persons and says, "The authentic high-principled Hitlerites, true Aryans Dugin, Prokhanov, Prosvirin, Kholmogorov, Girkin, Prilepin are a marginalized minority in Russia."[130][131] Piontkovsky adds, "Putin has stolen the ideology of the Russian Reich from the domestic Hitlerites, he has preventively burned them down, using their help to do so, hundreds of their most active supporters in the furnace of the Ukrainian Vendée."[130][131] In his interview with Radio Liberty, Piontkovsky says, maybe the meaning of the operation conducted by Putin is to reveal all these potential passionate leaders of social revolt, send them to Ukraine and burn them in the furnace of the Ukrainian Vendée.[132]
In his interview with Oleksandr Chalenko on 2 December 2014, according to the journalist, Girkin confirmed that he is an FSB colonel, but this claim was then subjected to censorship and omitted from publishing.[133] He also acknowledged that anarchy exists among the so-called Novorossiya militants.[133] He stated that Igor Bezler's militants in particular acted independently, the so-called "Russian Orthodox Army" had split in half, and other forces represented a patchwork of various unrelated groups.[133] Girkin criticised the ongoing attacks on the Donetsk International Airport as pointless and harmful.[133]
After Luhansk commander Alexander "Batman" Bednov was killed by other militants in January 2015, Girkin criticised the killing as a "murder" and "gangster ambush", and suggested that other commanders seriously consider leaving Donbas to Russia, as he did.[134] In a January 2015 interview for Anna News, Girkin said that in his opinion "Russia is currently at state of war", since the volunteers who arrive to Donbas "are being supplied with arms and shells". He also noted that "he never separated Ukraine from Soviet Union in his mind" so he considers the conflict as a "civil war in Russia".[135]
In March 2016 Girkin's appearance as a panelist on a Moscow Economic Forum (MEF) along with Oleg Tsarev and Pavel Gubarev attracted critical reactions in Russia, with Yaroslav Grekov from Ekho Moskvy accusing MEF organizers of "promoting terrorism".[136][137]
In May 2016, Girkin announced the creation of the Russian National Movement, a neo-imperialist political party. The party is in favor of "uniting the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus, and other Russian lands into a single all-Russian state and transforming the entire territory of the former USSR into an unconditional zone of Russian influence."[138] Girkin said "the Russian National Movement fully rejects President Vladimir Putin's regime and calls for an end to the current climate of fear and intimidation of Russia's citizens". The party has called for "strict quota system for migrant workers from the former Soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus" and the cancelling of laws on internet control.[139]
