In the early 2000s Igor Strelkov (Girkin) as an FSB officer was one of the coordinators of enforced disappearances in Chechnya - Russian death squads. In this regard, he cannot be called a political prisoner, as Alexander Cherkasov, member of the Board of the Memorial Human Rights Center, noted.

Oleg Orlov and Sergei Davidis, co-chairs of Memorial, also explained why Strelkov was not recognized as a political prisoner: “There is a point in our leadership that says that people who have committed violent crimes and called for such crimes, for violence, cannot be recognized as political prisoners. Girkin is a war criminal with blood on his hands. He calls for the continuation of the aggressive war against Ukraine and for the killing of Ukrainian citizens.”

On July 21, a court in Moscow detained Igor Strelkov, a former FSB officer and former defense minister of the “DPR”. He is accused of public calls to carry out extremist activities on the Internet (part 2 of article 280 of the Criminal Code). According to the lawyer, the case concerns two posts in the telegram channel.