Russia: nationalist opponent Igor Girkin sentenced to four years in prison

It's a first.

Russian justice has just condemned an ardent nationalist and a veteran of the fighting in Ukraine, Igor Girkin, former commander of pro-Russian separatists led by Moscow, already convicted in absentia by the Netherlands for the destruction of the MH17 which was flying above of Ukraine.

Igor Girkin, known as Strelkov, before the verdict of his trial at the Moscow City Court on January 25.

AFP - NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA

By: Anissa El Jabri Follow

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From our correspondent in Moscow, 

The trial was held behind closed doors, the content of the prosecution for “extremism” remained secret.

But everyone in the country knows why this former FSB colonel, a figure in the Russian militias in Donbass, is going to spend time behind bars.

This ex-commander who judges Vladimir Putin "

too nice

" in his conduct of the war in Ukraine, had become one of the most followed ultra-nationalist bloggers, but unlike most of them who criticized as much as possible generals, he had gone so far as to cross an absolute red line in Russia: attacking the head of state, even without naming him.

In one of his last posts,

Igor Girkin

wrote that “ 

a loser 

” was ruling Russia, that the country could not stand “

 six more years of this coward in power 

”.

The former separatist leader who pleaded for a general mobilization was arrested in July, a month after

Yevgeni Prigojine's mutiny

.

Igor Guirkine did not participate, but the event signaled a regaining of power in nationalist circles.

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