Igor Girkin

Early life

Girkin was born in Moscow, Russia, on 17 December 1970.

According to The New York Times, "his ideological rigidity precedes any connections he has to Russia's security services, stretching back at least to his days at the Moscow State Institute for History and Archives. There, Girkin obsessed over military history and joined a small but vocal group of students who advocated a return to monarchism."

Vice News reported that "during the 1990s, Girkin wrote for the right-wing Russian newspaper Zavtra, which is run by the anti-Semitic Russian nationalist Alexander Prokhanov" and where Alexander Borodai was an editor. Writing for Zavtra ("Tomorrow"), Girkin and Borodai, who too was reported to have fought for Russia-backed Transnistria and Republika Srpska separatists in Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina, together covered the Russian war against separatists in Chechnya and Dagestan.

He would also often write as a "Colonel in the Reserves" on Middle East subjects, such as the conflicts in Libya, Egypt and Syria, and for the Abkhazian Network News Agency (ANNA), a Russian-language pro-Russian publication which supports Abkhazian separatism in Georgia.

FSB service (1996–2003)

The Russian media has identified Girkin as an officer of the Russian military reserves who has expressed hardline views on eliminating perceived enemies of the Russian state. He has fought on the federal side in Russian counter-separatist campaigns in Chechnya and on the pro-Moscow separatist side in the conflict in Moldova's breakaway region of Transnistria.

In 1999, he published his memoirs of the fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2014, he was accused by Bosnian media (Klix.ba) and a retired Bosnian Army officer of having been involved in the Višegrad massacres in which thousands of civilians were killed in 1992.

The BBC reported Girkin may have worked for Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) in a counter-terrorism unit, citing Russian military experts. According to Russian media, he has served as an FSB officer and his last role before retirement was reportedly with the FSB's Directorate for Combating International Terrorism.

In 2014 Anonymous International disclosed what it said were Girkin's personal emails, revealing that he had served in the FSB for 18 years from 1996 to March 2013, including in Chechnya from 1999 to 2005, The Moscow Times reported. The newspaper also said Girkin was born in Moscow and that it contacted him by email and phone but that he would not confirm the claims. A local pro-Russia militia leader in Ukraine, Vyacheslav Ponomarev, a self-described old friend of Girkin's, said the information about Girkin was true. His pseudonym "Strelkov" ("Strelok") can be roughly translated as "Rifleman" or "Shooter". He has also been dubbed Igor Groznyy ("Igor the Terrible").

Chechen Wars

Alexander Cherkasov, head of Russia's leading human rights group Memorial, is convinced that the "Igor Strelkov" involved in Ukraine is the same person as a Russian military officer called "Strelkov", who was identified as being directly responsible for at least six instances (on four occasions) of the forced disappearance and presumed murder of residents of Chechnya's mountain Vedensky District village of Khatuni and nearby settlements of Makhkety and Tevzeni in 2001–2002, when "Strelkov" was attached to the 45th Detached Reconnaissance Regiment special forces unit of the Russian Airborne Troops based near Khatuni.

None of these crimes were solved by official investigations. The website of Chechnya's official human rights ombudsman lists several residents of Khatuni who went missing in 2001 (Beslan Durtayev and Supyan Tashayev) as having been kidnapped from their homes and taken to the 45th DRR base by the officers known as "Colonel Proskuryn and Strelkov Igor". Another entry lists the missing person Beslan Taramov as abducted in 2001 in the village of Elistandzhi by the 45th DRR servicemen led by "Igor Strelko (nicknamed Strikal)".

Cherkasov also lists Durtayev and Tashayev (but not Taramov) among the alleged victims of "Strelkov". Cherkasov and other observers suspected it was in fact the same "Strelkov" until May 2014, when Girkin himself confirmed he has been present at Khatuni in 2001, where he fought against the "local population".

According to Cherkasov, as a result of Girkin's actions in Chechnya, two sisters of one of those "disappeared", Uvais Nagayev, in effect turned to terrorism and died three years later: one of these sisters, Aminat Nagayeva, blew herself up in the 2004 Russian aircraft bombings over Tula Oblast aboard a Tu-134 "Volga-Aeroexpress" airliner, killing 43. The other sister, Rosa Nagayeva, participated in the Beslan hostage crisis that same year.

The emails leaked in May 2014 and allegedly authored by Girkin contain his diaries from Bosnia and Chechnya that he sent to his friends for review. One story describes an operation of capturing Chechen activists from a village of Mesker-Yurt. Asked by one of friends why he didn't publish them, Girkin explained that "people we captured and questioned almost always disappeared without trace, without court, after we were done" and this is why these stories cannot be openly published.

Annexation of Crimea and Donbas War (2014)

Following the February 2014 Ukrainian revolution, there were pro-Russian, counter-revolutionary demonstrations in southeastern Ukraine.

Crimea

After 16 years with the FSB, Girkin found employment as head of security for Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev, nicknamed “the Orthodox oligarch” for his close ties to the Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin. In January 2014, Girkin traveled to Kiev, where he was responsible for the security of a tour of religious relics to the Kiev Cave Monastery. The relics were part of the Gifts of the Magi and were exhibited in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. During his stay, he visited the Euromaidan and, after talking to local people, became convinced that the protests would be successful and that Ukraine would fall apart in the near future.

The relic tour moved on to Crimea at the end of January, where Malofeev met with the speaker of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, and discussed with him whether he would be prepared to take “more drastic action” in asserting Crimea’s autonomy should Kyiv descend into complete mayhem. After further meetings between Malofeev and local politicians Sergei Aksyonov and Rustam Temirgaliev, Malofeev and Girkin returned to Moscow. In the first half of February, the Kremlin received a strategy paper that was published a year later by the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. The paper stated that the government of President Viktor Yanukovych was “totally bankrupt” and without any future. The report proposed supporting separatist movements in southeastern Ukraine, focusing on Crimea and the Kharkiv region. The Kremlin and Malofeev denied any connection to this paper.

On Malofeev's recommendation, Girkin was invited back to Crimea at the end of February by Sergei Aksyonov, a member of the Parliament of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and later Prime Minister of Crimea, to serve as his “security advisor,” who put him in charge of his militias. The official commander of the militias was Aksyonov's close associate Mikhail Sheremet, but Girkin was responsible for the operational control of some units and their coordination with Russian security forces. According to reports, he introduced himself to local militiamen as an “emissary of the Kremlin”.

On the morning of February 27, militias occupied the Building of the Supreme Council of Crimea in Simferopol. Girkin ordered the militias to round up local lawmakers and forced them to call an extraordinary session in which they voted for Sergei Aksyonov as the new local prime minister. He founded the political party Russian Unity that received just 4 per cent of the votes in the last elections. Girkin’s men forced a vote for a referendum on the separation of Crimea from Ukraine on 25 May. Girkin admitted more than a year later on Russian television, that most of the peninsula’s government officials were against the move. “I did not see any support from the [Crimean] authorities in Simferopol where I was,” he confessed. “It was militants who collected deputies and forced them to vote. Yes, I was one of the commanders of those militants.” He was also reported to be instrumental in negotiating the 2014 defection of the Ukrainian Navy commander Denis Berezovsky.

Sloviansk

Girkin said that the head of the newly installed Russian government in Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, asked him to deal with the Donbas provinces of eastern Ukraine.

On 12 April 2014, Girkin led a fifty-strong unit of heavily armed Russian militants who captured the strategic town of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine. They attacked and occupied the town's administration building, police station, and Security Service building, and set up roadblocks. The unit were mostly Russian Armed Forces 'volunteers' from Russian-occupied Crimea and wore no insignia. The following morning, Girkin’s group set up an ambush for Ukrainian special forces near Sloviansk. During the ambush, Hennadiy Bilichenko, an officer with the Ukrainian Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), was killed, and three other members of the security forces were wounded. Bilichenko was the first combat victim of the war. Girkin later stated that he had “minced” Bilichenko. He also admitted that this action sparked the Donbas War. He said "I'm the one who pulled the trigger of war. If our unit hadn't crossed the border, everything would have fizzled out, like in [the Ukrainian city of] Kharkiv, like in Odessa". He said his unit was formed in Crimea and consisted of volunteers from Russia, Crimea, and other regions of Ukraine. Girkin claimed many of the militants had Ukrainian citizenship and had fought in the Russian Armed Forces in Chechnya and Central Asia, while others had fought in Iraq and Yugoslavia with the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Girkin said he was ordered not to give up Sloviansk.

On 15 April 2014, the SBU opened a criminal proceeding against "Igor Strelkov" for his actions in Sloviansk and Crimea, describing him as the chief organizer of the "terror" in Sloviansk Raion, including an ambush that killed one and wounded three SBU officers.

On 16 April, he allegedly sought to recruit Ukrainian soldiers captured at the entrance to Kramatorsk.

The SBU presented Girkin's presence in eastern Ukraine as proof of Russia's involvement in the Donbas War. They released intercepted telephone conversations between "Strelkov" and his supposed handlers in Moscow. Russia denied any interference in Ukraine by its troops outside Crimea.

In July 2014, Ukrainian authorities alleged that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu coordinated all of Girkin's actions, supplying him and "other terrorist leaders" with "the most destructive weapons" since May and instructing him directly, with Russian President Vladimir Putin's approval.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17

Multiple sources cited a post on the VKontakte social networking service that was made by an account under Girkin's name which acknowledged shooting down an aircraft at approximately the same time that the civilian airliner Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) was reported to have crashed in eastern Ukraine in the same area near the Russian border on 17 July 2014. The post specifically referenced how warnings were issued for planes not to fly in their airspace and the downing of a Ukrainian military Antonov An-26 transport plane which the Ukraine Crisis Media Center suggested was a case of misidentification with the MH17.

This post was deleted later in the day and the account behind it claimed that Girkin has no official account on this social service. Most of the 298 victims in the plane's crash came from the Netherlands. On 19 July the country's biggest newspaper De Telegraaf included Girkin's photo in the front page collage of pro-Russian rebel leaders under the one-word headline "Murderers" ("Moordenaars"). Russian opposition lawyer and politician Mark Feygin posted a purported order by Girkin where he instructs all his men and commanders who "have in their possession personal effects from this plane" to deliver the found items to his HQ so "the valuables (watches, earrings, pendants, and other jewelry and items from valuable metals)" would be transferred to "the Defense Fund of the DPR."

Girkin was the author of an alternative version of the incident, wherein "no living people were aboard the plane as it flew on autopilot from Amsterdam, where it had been loaded with "rotting corpses"." This lie was then

"not only aired on all state-controlled media outlets, but was the subject of serious discussion." At his press-conference on 28 July 2014, Girkin denied his connection to the downed plane and announced that his militants were killing "black-skinned" mercenaries.

In July 2015 a writ was filed in an American court by families of 18 victims formally accusing Girkin of "orchestrating the shootdown". The writ claimed damages of US$900 million and was brought under the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991.

On 19 June 2019, the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT), investigating the shooting down of MH17, officially announced a criminal case against Girkin and three other men. The court proceedings were scheduled to start on 9 March 2020 before the District Court of The Hague, at the Schiphol Judicial Complex The JIT said it would ask Russia to extradite the suspects who are currently on Russian soil, saying: "The criminal trial will take place even if the suspects choose not to appear in court." Interfax news agency quoted Girkin as saying: "I do not give any comments. The only thing I can say is the rebels did not shoot down the Boeing."

Planning of the Ilovaisk operation

After arriving in Donetsk, Girkin organized the fortification of the city and, as Defense Minister of the DPR, oversaw the planning of the operation that repulsed further Ukrainian advances into the Donbas and later resulted in the encirclement and destruction of the Ukrainian Army's Southern grouping in the Battle of Ilovaisk in late August. After Ukraine had captured Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the Ukrainian Army's offensive strategy involved the Ukrainian forces slicing through the LPR and DPR defenses, splitting them from each other (along the Svitlodarsk-Debaltseve arc), piercing through to the Russia–Ukraine border, and surging along the borders, cutting off Donbas from Russia. The plan resulted in a devastating defeat of the Ukrainian grouping and set the stage for the DPR-LPR counter-offensive in the second half of August, creating multiple cauldrons which destroyed several Ukrainian battalions and pushed the Ukrainian Army back.

While Girkin started the campaign, others took the plan to fruition after his dismissal in mid-August, and brought it to a tangible victory over the Ukrainian Army (a victory that, in turn, led to the Minsk I and Minsk II accords). These rebel commanders included Alexander Zakharchenko and Alexander Khodakovsky, as well as Girkin's deputies, such as Arsen Pavlov ("Motorola") and Mikhail Tolstykh ("Givi"). Later, Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) claimed that the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, General Valery Gerasimov, was in personal command of the Ilovaisk operation.

Dismissal as Donetsk People's Republic minister

According to ITAR-TASS news agency on Wednesday, 13 August 2014, Girkin was seriously wounded the previous day in fierce fighting in the pro-Russian rebel held territories of Eastern Ukraine, and was described to be in "grave" condition. DNS representative Sergei Kavtaradze refuted this news shortly after, saying Girkin is "alive and well".

On 14 August the leadership of the DNR announced that Girkin was dismissed from his position of defense minister "on his own request" as he was assigned "some other tasks". On 16 August the Russian TV-Zvezda claimed that Girkin was "on vacation". It claimed that he was appointed as a military chief of the combined forces of Luhansk and Donetsk (he had been in command of Donetsk forces only) and after he returns he will be put to a task of creating an unified command over the forces of the Federal State of Novorossiya. According to Stanislav Belkovskiy, the main reason for the removal of Girkin from the "defense minister" position was the amount of attention caused by the downing of MH17 and the negative impact on Russia's actions in Ukraine that it caused.

On 22 August a former rebel Anton Raevsky ("Nemetz") said in an interview in Rostov-on-Don that Girkin and his supporters are being cleansed from the DNR by the FSB, because of this insufficient compliance with Kremlin's policy on the republic. According to the Nemtsov Report, Girkin later acknowledged that he resigned from his official position in the DNR due to pressure from the Kremlin.

In November 2014 in an interview for "Moscow Speaking" radio, Girkin said that "the existence of Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics in their current form, with the low-profile but still bloody war, is definitely convenient for USA in the first place, and only for them, because they are the ulcer that divides Russia and Ukraine". Later in November in an interview for Zavtra newspaper Girkin stated that the war in Donbas was launched by his detachment despite both Ukrainian government and local combatants having avoided an armed confrontation before. Also he recognized himself responsible for the actual situation in Donetsk and other cities of the region.

Civilian life in Russia (2014–2022)

In late April 2014, "Strelkov" was identified by Ukrainian intelligence as Colonel Igor Girkin, registered as a resident of Moscow. Journalists visiting the apartment where he allegedly lived with his former wife and two sons, as well as his mother and sister. talked to neighbors who described Girkin as "polite" and quiet.

Girkin claims that he worked as a security chief for the controversial Russian businessmen Konstantin Malofeev. The Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic Alexander Borodai was also a close associate of the businessman.

According to the 2022 Bellingcat investigation, Girkin was using a Russian internal passport issued in the fictional name of Sergey Viktorovich Runov. Runov was the surname of his maternal grandfather, as well as the maiden name of his mother (as Runova). Passports from the same series have been used by several FSB operatives, including Zelimkhan Khangoshvili murderer Vadim Krasikov and members of the FSB squad involved in the poisoning of Alexei Navalny.

Andrey Piontkovsky adduces Girkin's name among those of like-minded persons and says, "The authentic high-principled Hitlerites, true Aryans Dugin, Prokhanov, Prosvirin, Kholmogorov, Girkin, Prilepin are a marginalized minority in Russia." Piontkovsky adds, "Putin has stolen the ideology of the Russian Reich from the domestic Hitlerites, he has preventively burned them down, using their help to do so, hundreds of their most active supporters in the furnace of the Ukrainian Vendée." In his interview with Radio Liberty, Piontkovsky says, maybe the meaning of the operation conducted by Putin is to reveal all these potential passionate leaders of social revolt, send them to Ukraine and burn them in the furnace of the Ukrainian Vendée.

In his interview with Oleksandr Chalenko on 2 December 2014, according to the journalist, Girkin confirmed that he is an FSB colonel, but this claim was then subjected to censorship and omitted from publishing. He also acknowledged that anarchy exists among the so-called Novorossiya militants. He stated that Igor Bezler's militants in particular acted independently, the so-called "Russian Orthodox Army" had split in half, and other forces represented a patchwork of various unrelated groups. Girkin criticised the ongoing attacks on the Donetsk International Airport as pointless and harmful.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine on late February, Girkin became again a public figure, covering the war though his warblog on Telegram. Girkin has a pro-war position, but has been noted for criticisms directed against the Russian military and the Ministry of Defence, including the defense minister Sergei Shoigu, in how the invasion has been unsuccessful, inefficient and insufficient. Ultra-nationalists and pro-war activists such as Girkin, once seen as untouchable, benefited from protection provided by high-ranking officials within the military and intelligence services, contrasting with the liberal, pro-democracy opposition to Vladimir Putin and independent journalists who have faced persecution since February 2022 for criticizing the war in Ukraine and the Kremlin. Bellingcat journalist Christo Grozev believes Girkin was shielded from being censored by a "war party" inside the FSB.

Due the initial failures of the Russian invasion, Girkin called on 29 March for a general mobilization. On 21 April Girkin raised the opinion that "without at least a partial mobilization in the Russian Federation, it will be impossible and highly dangerous to launch a deep strategic offensive against the so-called Ukraine".

On 15 August, Girkin was reportedly detained in Crimea while attempting to travel to the frontline near Kherson.

After large Ukrainian conteroffensives in September 2022, he predicted a complete defeat for Russian troops in Ukraine. He said that full mobilization in Russia was the "last chance" for victory. On 12 September, he called the Russian attacks on Ukrainian power plants "very useful". He also said that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu should be executed by firing squad and called for the use of tactical nuclear weapons in order "to drive 20 million refugees to Europe."

In early October 2022 Girkin left for Ukraine in order to fight in one of the Russian volunteer units. That same month, it was reported that the Ukrainian government crowdfunded a US$150,000 reward for his capture. In December 2022, he wrote about his experience: "Simply put, the troops are fighting by inertia, not having the slightest idea of the ultimate strategic goals of the military campaign. In most parts of the RF [Russian Federation] Armed Forces, soldiers and officers do not understand: In the name of what, for what, and with what purposes they are fighting. It's a mystery for them: What is the condition for victory or just a condition for ending the war."

Feud with Prigozhin

Girkin has made various critical comments about Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group. In an interview with "National Service News" (NSN) in January 2023, he criticized the leadership of the PMC Wagner for "wasting excellent assault infantry in frontal attacks in the most mediocre way", and made several attacks on Prigozhin, noting that he "should not be allowed into public space because of his background as a criminal". Responding to these attacks, Prigozhin invited Girkin to join the ranks of the Wagner PMC at that time fighting in Ukraine. After Girkin declined, Prigozhin accused him of having made a secret deal in 2014 with Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov to surrender Sloviansk to Ukraine in exchange for money and safe passage to Donetsk. In turn, Girkin accused the leadership of PMC Wagner of having carried out the murder of LPR commander Aleksey Mozgovoy in May 2015 on behalf of the Russian government.

Criticism of Putin

After returning from the Donbass to Russia in late 2014, he started criticizing members of Putin's inner circle, namely Vladislav Surkov and Sergei Shoigu, for having betrayed the people of the Donbass, but for a time he abstained from criticizing Putin in person.

On 21 February 2023, Girkin criticized Putin's speech to the Russian public, saying "Not a word about failures and defeats. Blah blah blah, there's no point in listening anymore...another chance to prevent turmoil has been missed."

On 25 June 2023, he said that if Putin "is not ready to take the leadership over the creation of war-ready conditions" in Russia, "then he really needs to transfer the powers, but legally, to someone who is capable of such hard work."

On 18 July 2023, Girkin urged Putin to transfer power "to someone truly capable and responsible", saying that "For 23 years, the country was led by a lowlife who managed to 'blow dust in the eyes' of a significant part of the population. Now he is the last island of legitimacy and stability of the state. But the country will not survive another six years of this cowardly mediocrity in power." Girkin said that "A lot of empty talk, the minimum of action and the utter lack of responsibility for failures — that is Putin's style of late."

In January 2026, Girkin voiced harsh criticism of the Kremlin following a successful U.S. military operation in Venezuela. His comments reflect a growing sentiment among Russian "Z-bloggers" that Moscow's international prestige has suffered a significant blow. He argued that Russia is so deeply "bogged down up to our ears in the bloody swamp of Ukraine" that it is effectively incapable of assisting its allies elsewhere. He framed the loss of Venezuela as a major reputational disaster for Russia, occurring shortly after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Girkin expressed a "grudging respect" for the U.S. operation, stating it demonstrated "how a great power should act" when responding to emerging threats before they become insurmountable.

Arrest and imprisonment

On 21 July 2023, Girkin was arrested by Russian authorities on charges of extremism, reportedly stemming from a complaint filed by a former employee of PMC Wagner. He had previously launched several attacks on Vladimir Putin's handling of the war in Ukraine, calling him a "cowardly waste of space" and "a non-entity" and called on him to resign the presidency.

In November 2023, Girkin announced his intention to run as a candidate in the 2024 Russian presidential election, describing elections in Russia as a "sham" in which "the only winner [referring to Putin] is known in advance". On 24 December 2023, hundreds of people gathered for a demonstration in Moscow in which they expressed their support for Girkin's candidacy.

Girkin appeared in court in Moscow in 2024 on charges of inciting extremism. He was convicted of the charges on 25 January, and was sentenced to imprisonment in a penal colony for four years. When the verdict was read out, Girkin reportedly shouted "I serve the Fatherland!". Girkin's lawyer said the verdict was "an ugly judicial act" and would be appealed "immediately". The court heard Girkin's appeal and upheld his sentence in May 2024. The cassation appeal heard before the Supreme Court of Russia on 6 November 2024 was not upheld and the previous court rulings were left unchanged.

Personal life

Girkin is a fan of military-historical reenactment and has participated in several reenactments related to various periods of Russian and international history, such as the Russian Civil War where he would play a White movement officer. His personal role model is said to be the White Guard general Mikhail Drozdovsky, killed in a battle with the Red Army in 1919.

Girkin was married to Miroslava Reginskaya in 2014, with whom he had a daughter.