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According to the verdict, Girkin should serve his sentence in a general regime prison colony. The court also banned him from using the internet for three years after his release, according to Reuters. The Russian state agency TASS pointed out that the court gave credit to the convict for the time he spent in pre-trial detention, i.e. about seven months. The verdict is not yet final and Girkin’s defense has already announced that it will appeal.
Girkin, 53, is a supporter of Russia’s war against Kiev, but took to social media to sharply criticize Russian authorities, including President Vladimir Putin, for showing incompetence in the war that has been going on for almost two years. 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 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 the Moscow Times, dozens of Girkin’s colleagues and supporters gathered outside the court and waited for the verdict because they were not allowed into the building. After the verdict was announced, one of his supporters shouted “Ukraine has won!” according to the news website, after which Girkin’s wife, Miroslava Reginská, called her husband a “political prisoner” outside the courthouse. Other Girkin allies also expressed their displeasure with the verdict. The police arrested several people at the scene, reported the independent portal Sota.
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