Nationalist Igor Girkin sentenced to 4 years in prison in Russia

Former Donbas separatist commander and war criminal Igor Girkin was sentenced to four years in prison after his repeated criticism of the Kremlin and President Vladimir Putin.
Girkin, who also goes by the pseudonym "Strelkov", helped fuel the conflict between Kremlin-backed separatists and Kiev's armed forces in Donbas in eastern Ukraine in 2014, AFP reported.
The Moscow City Court said it had found the 53-year-old guilty of "publicly calling for extremist activity" and that he would serve his sentence in a general-regime colony.
"I serve the Fatherland!" shouted Girkin after the verdict was read. His followers had gathered outside the court earlier.
He was arrested last year on charges of "extremism" after months of public attacks on Russian military leaders and President Vladimir Putin, whom he criticized for not launching a more aggressive offensive against Ukraine.
Girkin called Putin an "old idiot" and said "the country will not survive another six years of this cowardly mediocrity in power" in some of his latest social media posts before his arrest.
His sharp criticism, published daily in hours-long video blogs on his social media channels, was tolerated by the authorities for months, even as liberal opponents of the Kremlin received heavy sentences for opposing the military campaign.
But the mood in Moscow changed after Wagner's commander Yevgeny Prigozhin and hundreds of his soldiers launched a mutiny last June to overthrow Russia's military leadership.
Girkin's arrest was a high-level demonstration that Russia is reining in nationalist critics.
"Suspicious" extremist
Behind bars in pre-trial detention, Girkin mounted a doomed campaign to run against Putin in the March presidential election, cementing his anti-Kremlin stance.
In an interview with Russian media from prison, he said the country had "entered a period of acute instability" and was facing an "inevitable catastrophe".
Girkin built an image as the key figure behind Moscow's initial intervention in Ukraine in 2014.
Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula that year after a pro-European revolution in Kiev ousted the country's pro-Moscow president.
Girkin, a former FSB officer, formed and commanded Moscow-backed forces in the Donbass, moving troops from a base in the captured city of Slavyansk. He is believed to have ordered executions there for crimes such as petty theft.
Condemned for the tragedy of flight MH17
Strelkov was one of three men sentenced by a court in the Netherlands last year to life in prison in absentia for the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in July 2014.
About 298 people were killed when a missile fired from rebel-held territory hit the plane. Moscow has so far denied its involvement and refused to extradite Girkin to the Netherlands.
"In the West I have already been recognized as a terrorist, and in my homeland I have the dubious fame of an extremist," he said after his arrest.
Igop Girkin left eastern Ukraine shortly after the downing of MH17, becoming an ultra-nationalist blogger and supporter of the hard-line Novorossia ideology, which called for Russia to absorb huge swathes of Ukraine.
When Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, he said the entire country should be taken with a "swift and decisive victory", but within days he became disillusioned with Russia's "big mistakes", becoming an adamant a critic of the way Moscow is conducting the offensive.
Girkin wanted Russia's entire political system to be put on a solid military footing and significantly more men and resources thrown at the offensive. /BGNES