Telegram blogger and former FSB officer Igor Strelkov arrested

Law enforcement officers have arrested Telegram blogger Igor Strelkov (real surname — Girkin), who also led the troops of the Russia-backed self-proclaimed “DNR” in 2014.

According to RBK sources, the former FSB officer was taken from his home around noon on July 21. A search is currently underway in his apartment.

According to preliminary information, the arrest was carried out on the petition of a former Wagner Group employee.

A message from his wife Miroslava Reginskaya appeared on Strelkov’s Telegram channel. She claims that charges of “extremism” have been leveled against her husband.

Today, at about 11:30, representatives of the Investigative Committee came to our home. I was not in at that time. Before long, according to the concierge, they escorted my husband out and took him away in an unknown direction.

My friends told me that my husband has been charged under Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (extremism).

I don’t know anything about my husband’s whereabouts, he has not contacted me.

• Igor Strelkov is a former FSB officer. He led Russia-backed troops in eastern Ukraine. From May to August 2014, he also served as defense minister of the self-proclaimed “DNR.”
• In November 2022, a court in the Netherlands sentenced Strelkov to life in prison after finding him guilty in the case of the 2014 Malaysia Airlines crash in the Donetsk region.
• Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Strelkov has regularly commented on the course of the war, and has often criticized the actions of the Russian leadership.