Igor Strelkov crossed the Rubicon when he stepped into Slavyansk. For some, he has become a nightmare. For many, he has become a hero. The hero of our time.
Russian military blogger Igor Strelkov has gone off to fight in Donbass. Igor Strelkov is believed to have joined one of the units in the Ukraine conflict.
A top Russian military blogger and veteran of several armed conflicts, Igor Strelkov, has reportedly gone to the frontline to fight against Kiev.
Strelkov’s wife, Miroslava Reginskaya, posted a photo of her husband in fatigues on social media on Saturday, several days after Strelkov, whose real name is Igor Girkin, had stopped posting new messages on his accounts.
“There were questions: Where is Igor Ivanovich? Is everything okay, where did he disappear, and so on. To which I answer: Everything is great! He will make contact soon,” Reginskaya wrote.
Strelkov reposted her message with the photo on Sunday, without commenting. He had said in the past that he planned to go to the frontline.
Fellow military blogger and war correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky (real name: Maksim Fomin) cited his own sources as confirming that Strelkov has joined one of the volunteer battalions.
Strelkov, 51, fought in the conflicts in Transnistria and Bosnia in the 1990s as a volunteer, and later in Chechnya while serving in the Federal Security Service, Russia’s top domestic spy agency.
Strelkov quit the FSB in 2013 and a year later led a squad of volunteer fighters in support of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). At the time, the Donbass republic had just declared independence from Ukraine following the 2014 coup in Kiev.
Strelkov quickly rose to fame as one of the most well-known Donbass commanders, and served as the DPR’s defense minister for three months. He later returned to Russia, becoming a prolific military blogger and commentator.
The Ukrainian authorities put Strelkov on a wanted list in 2020 on suspicion of committing war crimes.
Ukrainian activist Sergey Sternenko tweeted on Saturday that he will pay $10,000 to anyone who captures Strelkov. Sternenko is a former regional leader of Ukrainian nationalist group Right Sector, which is banned in Russia. Several Ukrainian public figures quickly promised to contribute their own money, raising the bounty to $50,000, RT reports
In 2014 Igor Girkin, aka ‘Strelkov’ (the shooter), became the face of the Russian rebellion in Donbas region against the new US-installed illegitimate government in Kiev.
Strelkov was a critic of Russian military strategy in its early stages in a video posted to YouTube and has questioned Russia’s move as too soft. “But the war is completely different. It’s not at all what the Kremlin planned starting the operation three months ago. It’s absolutely not at all, and now for us, for all, for the whole Russian Federation, for the Russian people and even for the Kremlin celestials, there is an acute question of what to do next?” he said.
That has now probably changed since he is joining the fight.
https://youtu.be/9N9rYIhs32E
Igor Strelkov, the hero of our time
Soft-spoken and with an ever-wistful look, if you watched or listened to him for the first time, you would probably be baffled why they call him a hero. On camera, he doesn’t exude charisma but rather appears exhausted and careworn.
Nor does he talk like a silver-tongued politician but rather in a reserved and almost reluctant manner. You would ask yourself how this man has managed to lead thousands of people in the fight not for gold but for an idea.
To turn what seemed a losing battle into months of resistance that is only growing stronger despite the necessary losses.
To withstand an 84-day siege by a professionally trained army with nothing but a few rusty rifles and a World War II-era tank taken from a memorial. To keep fighting when it’s clear that the help is not coming. It’s the things done against all odds and in true faith that make him a hero.
If we define a hero from a psychological point of view, a hero is, above all, a mentally strong individual, insusceptible to outside influences, able to overcome the situational uncertainty and pluralistic ignorance, analyse the situation amidst confusion and act accordingly, relying on the social norms and personal moral principles. After the anti-constitutional coup d’état in Kiev on February 22, 2014, the country was plunged into turmoil, and whilst many in the South-East region of Ukraine were discontent with the regime that came to power with the backing of their American puppeteers, neo-Nazi parties, and simply fanatics, everyone believed that there would be someone who would make a stand, anyone but themselves.
Fortunately, such a man appeared. That man quickly gathered a group of like-minded locals in the small Ukrainian town of Slavyansk who were determined to go the extra mile in the fight for their right to remain who they are. That man’s name was Igor Strelkov.
Despite the common misconception, Strelkov was not deployed to the Donbass by Moscow as an agent (he retired from the FSB in the rank of Colonel on March 31, 2013), he was guided there by his sense of duty, justice, and fellowship, just like when he volunteered to fight for his people in Transnistria for five months in 1992 and Bosnia from October 30, 1992 until March 26, 1993. His peers describe him as “a noble and honourable man, devoted to his country.”
One of his fellow soldiers in Transnistria recalls one time when Strelkov led a group of soldiers across the bridge under enemy fire in order to deliver ammunition to their comrades in Bender. At the time, he was only 22.
In the last century, Russian society survived two massive strokes, with the second one leaving it paralyzed for the past 23 years. The first stroke — the Revolution of 1917 — sabotaged one of its cornerstones, Russian Orthodoxy, the cradle of Russian culture and system of ethics, as well as established the policy of positive discrimination against ethnic Russians.
The fall of the Soviet Union, in its turn, resulted in the collapse of the last remnants of morals that were prevalent during the Soviet era. Following that collapse, Russian society has almost lost its identity. Today, it’s regaining it. Nostalgia for the bygone greatness, combined with the surge of patriotism that Russian society has experienced in the wake of recent events, has evolved into the Russian Spring.
Russia is rising, and today, like never before, it needs strong leaders who will propel the foundation of the Russian State.
One such leader has already emerged. Igor Strelkov. From a re-enactor he has turned into a reconstructor. The reconstructor of the Russian Idea. A man who managed to cultivate high moral ideals within himself in the time of a moral vacuum is already one step shy of being a hero.
Igor Strelkov crossed the Rubicon when he stepped into Slavyansk. For some, he has become a nightmare. For many, he has become a hero. The hero of our time.