‘The Expendable People’ of Russia. Igor Strelkov and the Heroes of Donbass in the context of Putin's Authoritarianism Cover Image

„ZBĘDNI LUDZIE” ROSJI. IGOR STRIEŁKOW I BOHATEROWIE DONBASU W KONTEKŚCIE PUTINOWSKIEGO AUTORYTARYZMU
‘The Expendable People’ of Russia. Igor Strelkov and the Heroes of Donbass in the context of Putin's Authoritarianism

Author(s): Arbachan Kurbanowicz Magomedow
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Political history, Recent History (1900 till today), Present Times (2010 - today)
Published by: Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN
Keywords: the war in Donbass; ‘Russian world’; Strelkov as a challenge to Putin; the rise and fall of pro-Russian ‘dogs of war’ in Donbass; Putin's regime; heroes of the ‘Russian world’ as a spent force

Summary/Abstract: This article presents an analysis of the political rise and fall of Igor Strelkov/Girkin – one of famous heroes of the military conflict in South-Eastern Ukraine (Donbass). The main objective of this study is to show relations between Putin's regime and pro-Russian ‘dogs of war’ in Donbass using the example of Igor Strelkov. The paper also analyses how Donbass's warlord Strelkov became an ultra-conservative challenge to Kremlin. He is defined as a social-oriented ‘imperialist’. The author argues that in terms of political activity, Kremlin is afraid of Strelkov as an unpredictable and radical person. Strelkov was retired from the Donbass war in August 2014 by Kremlin because he promoted an ideological and political alternative to Putin's oligarch capitalism and corrupted kleptocracy. Strelkov has strongly criticized war in Ukraine (after he was dismissed from Donbass) and the Russian military operation in Syria as an ‘alien war’. Nevertheless, he was mobilized by the Russian authorities as a former ideological pro-Putin activist against Khodorkovsky. The article ends with a conclusion that Strelkov is a spent force that was used by the Kremlin until the fall of the ‘Novorossiya’ project.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 44
  • Page Range: 71-88
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish