Russian ultra-nationalist who has gotten away with criticizing the Kremlin for years is arrested after calling Putin a 'cowardly mediocrity'

Fri, 07/21/2023 - 20:35

Igor Girkin stands with his arms folded inside a defendant's cage. — Igor Girkin (Strelkov), the former top military commander of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" and nationalist blogger, detained earlier Friday and accused of extremism, sits inside a glass defendants' cage during a hearing to consider a request on his pre-trial arrest in Moscow on July 21, 2023.
Photo by ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

A prominent Russian war blogger was arrested on Friday after months of criticizing Putin.
Igor Girkin, a former FSB operative, had long flouted Russian laws forbidding wartime criticism.
But the pro-war blogger was detained this week after calling Putin a "cowardly mediocrity."

A prominent Russian ultra-nationalist who has long skirted consequences for his Kremlin criticism was arrested this week after apparently taking his critiques of Russian President Vladimir Putin too far this time.