Former GRU officer Igor Girkin calls for Kazakhstan’s annexation

The bloody unrest in Kazakhstan and the immediate deployment of Russian troops may seem like a vague situation in the former Soviet republic. But excerpts from an interview broadcast on Russian TV by a notorious separatist show Russia’s strategic intentions for regional-level unrest, border changes, and with that happening, it is known that horrific crimes are inevitable. Based on the statements made in this interview, Kazakhstan’s future is on the edge of the sword. Separation is the ultimate goal.

Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Igor Girkin, speaking at a television studio about the crisis in Kazakhstan, presents his radical ideas for a country that is facing serious instability. He says no one needs a greater Kazakhstan and that Russia should annex a third of its territory inhabited by ethnic Russians.

“We must annex a third of its territory, inhabited by ethnic Russians, and form a loyal government,” said pro-Russian separatist Girkin.

Russian FSB officer and the head over Russian terror units in Ukrainian Donbas 2014 Girkin: "Nobody needs a large Kazakhstan. We need to annex 1/3 of its territory, inhabited by ethnic Russians, and to install a loyal government over another 2/3 vs China". pic.twitter.com/9qb2hIsSEp

— Sergej Sumlenny (@sumlenny) January 10, 2022

He is a Russian military veteran who played a key role in Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea, and later led militant groups in the Donetsk People’s Republic in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

In the 1990s, Girkin joined Serb forces in the Bosnian war as a volunteer. He fought in Visegrad, a town in eastern Bosnia, where Serb soldiers, under the command of convicted war criminal Milan Lukic, burned alive Bosnian civilians, mostly women and children. Igor Girkin, a volunteer linked to Russia’s state intelligence services, was a comrade-in-arms of Lukic’s killers.

Girkin led a group of militants in Ukraine, where he took part in the siege of the city of Slavyansk. During the battle, he increased his influence and eventually became the de facto military commander of all separatist forces in the Donbas region, which was confirmed by the Prime Minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Borodai.

Ukrainian authorities have charged Girkin with terrorism. The European Union sanctioned him for his leading role in the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities have identified him as a retired colonel of the GRU (Russian Foreign Military Intelligence Organization).