Girkin goes by the alias Stelkov, and for several months has been using Telegram to make harsh criticisms of the Kremlin related to the war in Ukraine.
He has strongly criticized the Russian authorities for losses and defeats militarily, and believes that the Russian authorities are too soft and restrained in waging war in the neighboring country.
On Monday evening, however, he made statements that lead several experts to believe that he has crossed the line for what Putin is up to.
Calling Putin “poor”
In a video published on Telegram, he addresses the Russian president, whom he describes as a “poor”.
– For Putin, there may be a desire to flee when the situation really becomes critical. The mental category he belongs to means that in such a situation he will probably panic, and then he may try to run away to save his life, much like Yanukovych, says Girkin in the video, according to The evening paper.
He refers to Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s pro-Russian ex-president who escaped to Russia by helicopter when political opposition became too great.
– Complete idiots
Raises eyebrows
The statements are causing a stir among experts.
– I would think it will be seen almost as an insult to majesty, says Jørn Holm-Hansen, senior researcher at NIBR at OsloMet.
He points out that criticism of the president himself is not tolerated in Russia.
– This is exceptionally strong criticism. It’s something you haven’t been able to do since the days of Boris Yeltsin, says Holm-Hansen.
What is new about the criticism is that it is aimed at Putin directly and personally.
– It is nothing new that Girkin and other hawks with a background in the so-called people’s republics in Donbas have criticized the Kremlin. It’s something they’ve done all along. They have said that they have not supported them enough and that they have sent them bad advisers, says Holm-Hansen.
He thinks Girkin is now crossing the line.
– I would think that is over the line for what is acceptable. He says Putin is unfit to be president, in the middle of a war. He calls the president unfit in his being, because he is a coward, thinks about his own skin, and wants to leave the others in the lurch, says Holm-Hansen to Dagbladet.
– Putin is desperate
I do
Swedish experts believe Girkin is exposing himself to great danger by directly criticizing the president in this way.
Like the other hawks, the ultra-nationalists who are even more pro-war than Putin and the official apparatus of power, Girkin has been given apparently free rein to criticize the war.
They have been able to function as a kind of valve for Putin, as long as the criticism does not question the legitimacy of the warfare itself.
– I no longer believe that he is a valve, given that he criticizes Putin directly. It is incomprehensible that he is still alive, says the Swedish lieutenant colonel Joakin Paasikivi to The evening paper.
PERSONAL: Experts believe Putin is taking the criticism from Igor Girkin personally. Photo: Ivan Sekretarev / AP
sea view
You were also surprised by Stefan Ingvarsson, analyst at the Center for Eastern European Studies.
– Here Girkin crosses the extreme red line – which consists in not criticizing the president – when he compares him to the former Ukrainian president, he tells the newspaper.
Contrast
To Dagbladet, Holm-Hansen points to strong contrasts with the way Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has presented himself since the start of the war.
When the Americans offered him a route out of the country to safety, Zelenskyj reportedly replied:
“I need ammunition, not a ride.”
STAYING AWAY: Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a selfie video on social media from Kyiv the day after Russia invaded the country. Photo: Zelenskyi’s Facebook pages via AFP
sea view
– It is very much at odds with the way Zelenskyj chose to film himself on the street together with the rest of the country’s top management, and say “we are here”, he says.
He therefore believes that the criticism affects Putin strongly personally.
– He himself plays on the fact that he is macho and tough, and that Russia’s interests come before everything else. It’s probably something that hits, he says.
Sentral rolle
Igor Girkin was previously a commander in the alleged Donetsk People’s Republic, the separatists who have controlled parts of Donetsk Oblast since 2014.
He has had a prominent military role in the Russian-backed war in Ukraine, and has been sentenced to life in prison by the International Court of Justice in The Hague for his role in the downing of Air Malaysia’s flight MH17.
The passenger plane was shot down over Ukraine when the war was only going on in eastern Donbas in 2014. All 298 on board lost their lives.
