page_title: Igor Girkin
hierarchical_section_title: Igor Girkin
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Игорь Стрелков на пресс-конференции в Екатеринбурге English: Igor Strelkov at the press conference in Yekaterinburg
context_page_description: Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, also known by the alias Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, is a Russian army artillery veteran who played a key role in the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, and later the War in Donbass as an organizer of the Donetsk People's Republic's militant groups. Girkin, a self-described Russian nationalist, was charged by Ukrainian authorities with terrorism. He is currently sanctioned by the European Union for his leading role in the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine.
  Ukrainian authorities have called him a retired colonel of the GRU.
  According to different sources, he unreservedly demands that the "liberal clans" be destroyed. On 28 May 2016 he formed the Russian National Movement, a political group in favor of "uniting the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus, and other Russian lands into a single all-Russian state and transforming the entire territory of the former USSR into an unconditional zone of Russian influence."
  On 19 June 2019, Dutch prosecutors charged Girkin for murder in the MH17 crash and issued an international arrest warrant against him.
context_section_description: Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin (Russian: И́горь Все́володович Ги́ркин, IPA: [ˈiɡərʲ ˈfsʲɛvələdəvʲɪtɕ ˈɡʲirkʲɪn],; 17 December 1970), also known by the alias Igor Ivanovich Strelkov (Russian: И́горь Ива́нович Стрелко́в, IPA: [ˈiɡərʲ ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ strʲɪlˈkof]), is a Russian army artillery veteran who played a key role in the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, and later the War in Donbass as an organizer of the Donetsk People's Republic's militant groups. Girkin, a self-described Russian nationalist, was charged by Ukrainian authorities with terrorism. He is currently sanctioned by the European Union for his leading role in the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. 
  Ukrainian authorities have called him a retired colonel of the GRU (Russia's external military intelligence organisation).
  According to different sources, he unreservedly demands that the "liberal clans" (liberal elements of the Russian elite) be destroyed. On 28 May 2016 he formed the Russian National Movement, a political group in favor of "uniting the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus, and other Russian lands into a single all-Russian state and transforming the entire territory of the former USSR into an unconditional zone of Russian influence."
  On 19 June 2019, Dutch prosecutors charged Girkin for murder in the MH17 crash and issued an international arrest warrant against him.
caption: Strelkov in 2015
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