A court in Moscow has extended the pretrial detention of Igor Girkin, once a leader of Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine's east, who was arrested in July and charged with public calls for extremism after criticizing President Vladimir Putin for “badly” handling the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
The Meshchansky district court on September 12 ruled that Girkin must stay in custody until at least December 18.
If convicted, the 52-year-old Girkin, who maintains his innocence, faces up to five years in prison.
Girkin (aka Strelkov) had been a key commander of Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region in 2014 and helped Russia illegally annex Ukraine's Crimea that year.
A former officer of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), Girkin has sharply criticized Putin in online statements, referring to him as a “nonentity” and accusing him of “cowardly mediocrity.”
He also called out Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for "mistakes" in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and has accused both of "incompetence," saying a total military mobilization is needed for Russia to achieve victory.
In one of his harshest rants, Girkin said in a July 18 post on his official Telegram channel that Putin should transfer power "to someone truly capable and responsible." The post has garnered almost 800,000 views.
Last month, Girkin made a statement from pretrial detention, saying he plans to take part in a presidential election next year.
In November, a court in the Netherlands sentenced Girkin and two other defendants to life in prison in absentia in the case of the 2014 shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine. All 298 people on board died in the crash.
In February, international investigators said there were "strong indications" that Putin was personally involved in the incident.
The Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was blown out of the sky on July 17, 2014, amid a conflict between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian armed forces. The victims came from more than a dozen countries, although more than two-thirds of them were Dutch citizens.
Russia has denied any involvement in the shooting down of the plane.