The Moscow City Court on October 17 rejected an appeal filed by lawyers of Igor Girkin (aka Strelkov), once a leader of Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's east, against the pretrial detention he was placed in earlier this year after he criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for “badly” handling the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Girkin's lawyers requested that the court replace the pretrial detention order with pretrial restrictions other than incarceration such as house arrest.
Last month, Moscow’s Meshchansky district court extended Girkin's pretrial detention until December 18.
Girkin was arrested in July and charged with public calls for extremist activities. If convicted, the 52-year-old Girkin, who maintains his innocence, faces up to five years in prison.
Girkin was a key commander of Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region in 2014 and helped Russia annex Ukraine's Crimea that year.
A former officer of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), Girkin has sharply criticized Putin in online statements for his handling of the Ukraine invasion, referring to the president as a “nonentity” and accusing him of “cowardly mediocrity.”
He has 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.
Shortly after his arrest, 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 Russia-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 downing of the plane.