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Alleged war criminal reportedly gets himself arrested in Ukraine [1]

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Date: 2022-08-13

Igor Girkin

Many folks, including myself, have wondered how Igor Girkin managed to continue to scathingly criticize the Russian war effort for its stupidity and incompetent leadership and not get himself arrested.

The answer now is — he didn’t.

x Girkin, an ex-officer of Russia's Federal Security Service, launched Russia's war in the Donbas by seizing Slovyansk in 2014. Since then, he has become critical of Putin, lashing out at him for mishandling the war effort and refusing to carry out mobilization. — The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) August 13, 2022

x Russian extremist, war criminal and, since recently, a "military analyst" Igor Girkin (Strelkov) has reportedly got so desperate about Russia’s positions in Ukraine that he shaved his mustache off and went off to fight himself — but was busted in Crimea.

That’s all, folks! pic.twitter.com/nqyjfcg8HY — Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) August 13, 2022

If you aren’t familiar with Girkin, or his nom de guerre Igor Strelkov, he helped lead the Donbas separatist movement that resulted in Russia virtually annexing it in 2014 along with Crimea.

But he’s also famous for the shootdown of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 that killed 298 people, most of them Dutch.

Girkin was later charged with murder by Dutch prosecutors and an international arrest warrant was issued. He is also wanted by Ukrainian authorities on terrorism charges and has been accused of using civilians as human shields.

So what does such a pro-Russian dude have to do to get himself arrested by Russia?

Here’s an example from his blog of his opinion of Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu:

Not a word, not a sound was heard from the Minister of Defence in the five months about the real problems of the Armed Forces of RF at the frontlines of a new difficult war. The supplying and replenishment of the troops is at roughly the same level (without taking into account the heavy losses incurred). A large number of “refuseniks” at the front line units, there are no queues of volunteers at the enlistment offices, and many of those who come are turned back. And nothing is done to improve on this situation. Once again, what would a “suddenly honest” Minister of Defence do in the place of Sergey Kuzhugetovych? Perhaps, he would come to the president and say – “Dear Vladimir Vladimirovych! I can’t do this anymore! There’s not enough soldiers and officers at the front, we are moving from storage the vehicles from the middle of the last century! We are equipping the mobilised militias of the LDPR with Degtyarov’s machine guns of the 1928 model year, and Mosin-Nagant rifles from 1891! Declare mobilisation – we need to replenish and equip the army! And if you can’t, sack me, I cannot lead like this… we will lose the war!”. After all, he could leave “due to illness”. But no! He’s flying around, awarding orders, giving away Heroes’ Stars in batches! Promoted Konashenkov for blatant lies… No, guys, I will never have a “kind word” for this Plywood Marshall. Not for his “feats” during destruction of the USSR (in the inner circle of Bor’ka the drunk), not for complicity in the mass murder of the Russian people during the October 1993 coup d’état, and not even for the collapse of the Ministry of Emergency Situations (which was also turned in many ways into a PR service unable to carry out responsibilities during major natural disasters). But for him (following Serdyukov (note: Minister of Defence between 2007 and 2012) and his successors) turning our Armed Forces into a rabble incapable of defeating a serious enemy.

I imagine that didn’t go over well at the Kremlin.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/13/2116448/-Alleged-war-criminal-reportedly-gets-himself-arrested-in-Ukraine

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