Igor Girkin (aka Strelkov), once a leader of Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, pleaded not guilty to the charge of public calls for extremist activities as his trial opened in Moscow on December 14.
Girkin's lawyer, Gadzhi Aliyev, said the trial was adjourned until December 20 after the court officially introduced the charge to Girkin, who subsequently entered his not-guilty plea.
The 52-year-old was arrested in July after he sharply criticized President Vladimir Putin in online statements for his handling of the Ukraine invasion, referring to the Russian leader 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, which is now in its 22nd month, 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.
Girkin was charged with publically calling for extremist activities. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
A former officer of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), Girkin was a key commander of separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region in 2014 and helped Russia annex Ukraine's Crimea that year.
Shortly after his arrest, Girkin made a statement from pretrial detention, saying he planned to take part in the upcoming presidential election in March.
In November 2022, 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 the 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 shooting down the plane.