Published November 19,2023
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Pro-war Russian nationalist Igor Girkin, who’s in custody awaiting trial for inciting extremism, has stated he needs to run for president within the March 2024 election, his supporters stated, citing a letter from jail.
Girkin, who can also be recognized by the alias Igor Strelkov, has repeatedly warned that Russia faces revolution and even civil conflict except President Vladimir Putin‘s navy high brass combat the conflict in Ukraine extra successfully.
A former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who helped Russia to annex Crimea in 2014 after which to organise pro-Russian militias in japanese Ukraine, Girkin stated earlier than his arrest that he could be getting into politics.
“A systemic crisis is brewing in Russia – or it is already in the grip of crisis – while the temperature of society is rising,” Girkin advised Reuters in May. “We are on the cusp of very grave internal political changes of a catastrophic character.”
Oleg Nelzin, co-chairman of the Russian motion supporting Strelkov, learn out a letter from Girkin during which he requested supporters to start out work on placing him ahead to run within the March election.
An image of Girkin, 52, above a slogan “Our president – Igor Ivanovich Strelkov – ’24,” was projected on a display behind Nelzin as he spoke. Applause adopted on the assembly, a clip of which Girkin’s supporters posted on Telegram.
Girkin’s supporters confirmed to Reuters that he had requested to be put ahead to run. As he has not but been convicted, he may theoretically participate within the election, they stated. Girkin denies the costs in opposition to him.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated in an interview revealed on Friday that he hoped Putin would run within the March election for one more time period as president, a transfer that might maintain Putin in energy till no less than 2030.
RUSSIAN NATIONALISTS
Russia has cracked down on nationalist critics, who’ve known as for a a lot harder strategy to preventing the conflict together with martial legislation and a country-wide mobilisation, after the failed June mutiny by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Prigozhin was killed in August in a airplane crash, the causes of that are nonetheless unclear. Girkin, who has additionally served in Chechnya and Moldova, was arrested in July.
Girkin, a monarchist who wrote a dissertation on the “White Russians” who fought the “Red” Bolsheviks after the 1917 revolution, is without doubt one of the most distinguished nationalists who has criticised Russia’s execution of the conflict, which he casts as a part of an existential battle with an boastful West.
He has known as the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union “positive” however says the post-Soviet Russian elite was corrupt and dealing for the West to weaken Russia.
Girkin stated in May that regardless of his personal criticism of Putin’s failings, “Putin is currently the only legitimate figure in the Russian Federation.”
He stated in August that he would make a greater president than Putin, describing the Kremlin chief as “too kind” and “too trusting” of Russia’s safety and navy chiefs.
Girkin was convicted final 12 months in absentia by a Dutch court docket of homicide for his position within the capturing down of Flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014 with the lack of 298 passengers and crew. He has denied he was concerned.
Source: www.anews.com.tr