Former separatist commander Igor Girkin, who is currently in custody, said on Thursday that he wanted to run for Russia’s presidency in next year’s elections and further criticized leader Vladimir Putin.
The now candidate for the 2024 presidential election is 52 years old, better known as Igor Strelkov and has been in prison since July.. He is accused of authorship of calls for extremist activities. He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of weakness and indecisiveness in Ukraine and was accused of extremism.
The criticism of Putin puts the Russian nationalist at risk of being sentenced to five years in prison.
Russia is expected to hold presidential elections in March 2024.
As elections approach, Russian authorities are cracking down not only on liberal critics, but also on anti-Kremlin figures who support Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.
“I consider myself more competent in military affairs than the acting president, and certainly more competent than the defense secretary,” Girkin said in a statement announcing his candidacy.
Girkin is a staunch supporter of the Russian campaign in Ukraine, but has criticized Russia’s military leadership. In the message published on social networks, he mocked by saying “the current president is very nice”.
The announcement of the candidacy was released on the Telegram social network, where it is followed by more than 700,000 people.
Unlike Putin, “I shouldn’t give in to my friends’ wishes at the expense of the Russian economy,” Girkin said, citing numerous allegations of corruption.
The ultranationalist’s moment of glory came in 2014, when he was the leader of the Kremlin-backed rebels who fought against Kiev forces for the Donetsk People’s Republic, an unrecognized breakaway region in eastern Ukraine.
In 2022, a Dutch court sentenced him in absentia to life imprisonment for his involvement in the downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet. All 298 people on board were killed.
He also fought in Bosnia on the side of the Serbs, in Dagestan and Chechnya.
The announcement of the candidacy was made a day after a Russian court upheld preventive detention.
Source: DN
