Moscow City Court refused to release Strelkov from jail

The Moscow City Court recognized as lawful the detention of the ex-Minister of Defense of the DPR, a former FSB officer Igor Strelkov (real name Girkin). Thus, he will remain in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center until September 18, 2023. Strelkov is accused of publicly calling for extremist activities on the Internet (part 2 of article 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Before the start of the meeting, law enforcement officers stepped up security measures in the court and around the perimeter. Several dozen sympathizers for Strelkov came to the building of the Moscow City Court.

The court session in the Court of Appeal on August 29 was held in open mode. Strelkov was taken to the Moscow City Court for personal participation in the meeting at his request. Three of his defenders in court insisted on the groundlessness and illegality of the measure of restraint chosen for him. The accused himself admitted that he still does not understand why he was chosen the most severe measure of restraint. “I did not understand from the very beginning why a measure in the form of arrest was chosen for me. Why can I hide and where? I cannot hide – I am under the verdict of the Hague Tribunal. In the material of the case, I see no reason to keep me in custody,” he said.

During the hearing, the judge of the Moscow City Court attached, at the request of the defense, numerous awards and thanks to Strelkov as a personality characteristic. Among them are several thanks from Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of the Russian FSB Alexander Bortnikov, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev, as well as medals, certificates and orders for the period of service.

Along with this, the court received two guarantees for Strelkov from people unknown to him. The court refused to accept them because they were sent by e-mail. “I have a lot of subscribers and acquaintances, I can’t clearly identify from whom,” Strelkov explained to the court.

He also expressed his attitude to the preliminary investigation and the work of the investigation in his case. According to Strelkov, the criminal case is “sloppily put together” and looks like “hack-work.” His lawyers confirmed in court that in the course of investigative actions in the pre-trial detention center, their principal provided the investigation with everything they needed to continue the investigation and did not interfere with them.

Another reason for the release of Strelkov from custody was the state of his health. “My state of health, as they say, is average scall. I entered the pre-trial detention center already with serious diagnosed diseases, ”said the defendant. On July 21, 2023, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow placed Strelkov in custody at the request of the FSB Investigation Department for Moscow and the Moscow Region.

The case file refers to two posts in Telegram dated May 25. “My principal does not deny that the posts were written by him… He acknowledges authorship. The first post on May 25 in his channel about the allegedly impending surrender of Crimea. The second – from the same date on the non-payment of funds to the fighters of the airborne battalions, ”said his lawyer Alexander Molokhov.

A statement against Strelkov was written by a former Yaroslavl deputy, and now a doctor of PMC Wagner, Dmitry Petrovsky. He himself told about this to the Yarinform publication.

Strelkov is one of the most famous participants in the events in eastern Ukraine that began in 2014. After the coup d’état in Kiev in February 2014, he became a member of the militia of the then self-proclaimed LPR and DPR. From May to August 2014, he served as Minister of Defense of the DPR. After leaving the post of minister, he left the territory of Donbass and began to conduct active social activities.

In November 2022, the Hague court found Strelkov guilty of the destruction of the Malaysian Boeing on the territory of the DPR in July 2014, as a result of the disaster, then 298 passengers died. Together with him, the retired GRU officer Sergei Dubinsky and the former DPR militiaman Leonid Kharchenko were accused. Russia does not recognize the court’s decision. Strelkov himself stated that the militia did not shoot down the plane, and refused to testify to the court.

Strelkov has been actively supporting the Russian army since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine. In his Telegram channel on February 24, 2022, he spoke with a wish for an early victory. At the same time, he criticized the course of the special operation and the military leadership. On June 25, the ex-Minister of Defense of the DPR spoke at the Moscow congress of the “Angry Patriots Club” with his own political program, where he called for “transferring the country to a military footing.”