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Ukraine: Igor Girkin was once powerful Separatist leader. Then he broke with Putin

Ukraine: Igor Girkin was once powerful Separatist leader.  Then he broke with Putin

Igor Girkin has long been the face of the separatists in Ukraine. He waged a war for Vladimir Putin by any means necessary. Until the Kremlin boss wasn’t radical enough for him.

In the summer of 2014, there was no getting around Igor Girkin in Donbass: under the pseudonym Igor Strelkov (derived from the Russian word for shooter), he led the supposed pro-Russian separatists in the fight against the Ukrainian army, and as “defense minister” of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, coordinated the capture of Skavyansk and was hailed as a war hero in Russia. The man with the brush mustache has long been the face of the Separatists.

But in August 2014, the famous rebel commander resigned and disappeared from the eastern Ukrainian scene. Last Friday, however, he moved back into the focus of world public opinion. In an interview with the TV channel OSN, the former FSB officer explained that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine had failed: “29 days of the special operation have passed. No strategic success has been achieved in any direction (…). Even more : The enemy is quite successful in mobilizing and launching a counter-offensive.” Which the Russian Ministry of Defense and its spokesman Igor Konashenkov would not mention with a syllable.

“To my regret, I have to say that my most pessimistic predictions that we will be dragged into a bloody, long, draining and highly dangerous mess for the Russian Federation have come true.”

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A former separatist leader and FSB officer admits the defeat of the Russian army in Ukraine – news that sounds revolutionary. In fact, Girkin’s statements are not surprising. After his disappearance from Ukraine, the break with the Kremlin quickly followed. “In 016, Girkin publicly turned against Putin.

Igor Girkin renounced Putin

In an interview with the British newspaper at the time, he predicted a bleak future for the Russian president. “Putin and his circle have recently embarked on a path that I believe will inevitably lead to a collapse of the system,” he said. “We don’t know how yet, we don’t know when yet, but we’re sure it will collapse, and sooner rather than later.”

In one chaired by Girkin, he refused allegiance to Putin. “We refuse to support the current political regime,” it said.

Standstill after crossing the Rubicon in Ukraine

The former intelligence officer accused Putin of cowardice and inconsistency. With the annexation of Crimea, the Kremlin chief “crossed the Rubicon,” but then there was an unexpected and illogical standstill. Putin neither dared to go forward nor step backwards. “He has no ideas and seems to be waiting for a miracle. He’s stuck in the middle of a swamp,” Girkin said of the Kremlin boss in an interview with the “Guardian”.

Like Caesar, he himself would probably not have stopped at the Rubicon. Girkin would have marched further on his Rom. His goal: “The unification of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other Russian countries into an all-Russian state and the transformation of the entire territory of the former Soviet Union into an unconditional Russian zone of influence,” the former separatist commander said in his statement.

The dream of the all-Russian empire

He also fought for the dream of a Russian national empire in the Donbass – with ruthless methods. Girkin did not even shy away from executions. Marauding Separatist fighters were shot under his leadership. “Without strict discipline and an avenging sword of justice, the situation under wartime conditions would not have been controllable,” he said in an interview with the Guardian. But as it was, each of his soldiers would have known that he would be punished for a crime just as severely as the enemy, if not more severely.

Girkin repeatedly called on Moscow to invade Ukraine directly. A step that Putin was not prepared to take at the time. The dictator at that time was not dictator enough. That has changed. He has been at war in Ukraine for a month now. But there is no place for Girkin in this war.

A corrupted cult figure

For the Kremlin he is a burnt hero. By the summer of 2014, Girkin had become something of a national hero. He himself claimed to have been largely an independent figure – perhaps too independent for the Kremlin. And too popular. Posters hung in Moscow advertising New Russia. He was the one on the front line defending the Russian people against the “Ukrainian fascists” while Putin petted leopard cubs for the evening news.

Then came the decisive turning point: If you believe the Ukrainian secret services, Girkin is the one responsible for the crash of the MH17 flight. He is one of the four accused in the process of shooting down the passenger plane over eastern Ukraine, which has been ongoing in Amsterdam since 2020. Shortly after the alleged downing of the passenger plane, the government in Kyiv released audio recordings intended to document a conversation between him and another rebel leader about the downing of a passenger plane.

The cult figure was damaged. A few weeks after the MH17 crash, Girkin left Ukraine and returned to Moscow. Since then he has been on a blacklist, as he reported to the “Guardian” six years ago. He would not be granted a single minute of broadcasting on Russian state television. “For them, I’m an uncomfortable figure. They don’t know what to do with me: am I a hero or a terrorist? They can’t arrest me and put me in jail because that would be considered an admission to the West. To honor me Neither can they, so I’m caught between the chairs.”

Apparently nothing has changed in his situation to this day.

Source: Stern

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