Owen Matthews Owen Matthews

Meet Vladimir Putin’s real challengers (they’re even worse than he is)

Ultra-nationalists like the bizarre Igor Strelkov are the force that Putin feels most need to bend to

issue 30 August 2014
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Strange times throw up strange heroes — and in Russia’s proxy war with Ukraine, none is more enigmatic than the Donetsk rebel leader Igor Girkin, better known by his nom de guerre of Igor Strelkov.

In a few short months, Strelkov has gone from being an obscure military re-enactor to the highest-profile rebel leader in eastern Ukraine.

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Written by
Owen Matthews

Owen Matthews is an Associate Editor of The Spectator and the author of Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin’s war on Ukraine.

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