A court in Moscow has sent Igor Girkin (aka Strelkov), the former leader of Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine who has criticized President Vladimir Putin and senior military officials for an ineffective war campaign, to pretrial detention on an extremism charge.
The Meshchansky district court ruled on July 21 that Girkin must stay in pretrial detention until at least September 18. Girkin entered a not guilty plea.
The court pronounced the decision hours after Girkin's wife, Miroslava Reginskaya, said on Telegram that her husband was detained on an extremism charge.
Girkin's lawyer also confirmed the detention to the RBK and AFP news agencies.
Girkin was a key commander of Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region in 2014. He also helped Russia illegally annex Ukraine's Crimea that year.
But his detention appears to indicate he has fallen out of favor with the Kremlin despite previously being seen as untouchable given his background.
SEE ALSO: A 'New Dimension': After Prigozhin's Mutiny, What Happens Next?A former officer of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), Girkin has sharply criticized Putin, recently referring to him as a "nonentity" and a "cowardly mediocrity," and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for "mistakes" in the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. He also has accused them of "incompetence" and argued that a total 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.
In November last year, 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.