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The former FSB intelligence officer has been in command of pro-Russian separatist militias in eastern Ukraine since spring 2014. A Dutch court sentenced him in absentia to life imprisonment in 2022 for his role in the murder of 298 people aboard a Malaysian airliner shot down over eastern Ukraine in the summer of 2014. Russia refuses to extradite people convicted in MH17 case.
According to Thursday’s verdict, Girkin will serve his sentence in a general regime prison colony. At the same time, after his release, the court banned him from managing Internet resources for three years, the Russian state agency TASS wrote, pointing out that the court counted the time he spent in pre-trial detention, about seven months. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
Girkin is a supporter of Russia’s war against Kiev but has taken to social media to sharply criticize Russian authorities, including President Vladimir Putin, for their incompetence in the nearly two-year-long invasion. After criticizing the Kremlin chief, he was arrested last July and charged with extremist calls.
In November, Girkin announced from prison that he wanted to run for president of Russia. The trial began in Moscow in December and the prosecutor demanded almost five years in prison.
The case is being closely watched because it is a sign of the extent to which the Kremlin tolerates aggressive criticism of its wartime behavior in Ukraine, Reuters noted.
I’m better. Girkin wants to become president of Russia; he has subjected Putin to scathing criticism from his cell
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