Schrödinger’s Gorkin
27 February 10:30
For the third day, Russian terrorist and war criminal Girkin-Strelkov has been in an indefinite quantum state, just like the “Schrödinger’s cat” from the famous thought experiment. Until we open his chamber and look inside, we cannot say anything about whether he is alive or dead. Half alive, half dead, and alive and dead at the same time.
Reports of Girkin’s death appeared in the Russian segment of the network on the evening of Sunday, 25 February. Russian bloggers and users began to spread this image:

Neither Miroslava Reginskaya nor Pavel Gubarev published such posts, and the picture appeared on the Telegram channel of the opposition and pro-Ukrainian Russian journalist Alexander Nevzorov. They immediately warned that it was a fake.
“This evening’s fake. There are rumours that Girkin-Strelkov hanged himself in his cell. “The screenshot was sent by subscribers. There is no official confirmation, including from his wife. There is no such post on her channel either. We highly doubt that this is true, but we can’t help but share it with you,”
– nevzorov’s channel wrote.
Strelkov’s wife Miroslava Reginskaya does have a post with similar words, but it concerns the death of another Russian z-patriot, a volunteer named Murz, who allegedly committed suicide the day before.

Pavel Gubarev could not write his post about his “ally and friend” either, as Girkin has long been neither his friend nor his ally. A year ago, they created the Club of Angry Patriots (KRP) together, clearly with an eye to active participation in Russian politics. However, after Girkin’s arrest in July 2023, Pavel Gubarev instantly changed his attitude towards Girkin, and his “friend suddenly turned out to be a liar and an intriguer.

In short, as Nevzorov’s channel wrote, the news of Girkin’s death was an “evening fake”. But since then, the public has not been shown a living terrorist.
Deaths of Putin’s enemies
It is easy to believe in Girkin’s death, as there has been a lot of deaths among Putin’s enemies lately. After the Prigozhin disaster, there was a certain lull, but Navalny’s death shook not only Russia but the whole world. To this we add the unfortunate suicide within a few days of the volunteer Murz, who was also at odds with the Kremlin. Therefore, the news of Girkin-Strelkov’s death did not come as a surprise.
Strelkov has been imprisoned since July 2023, and all this time, channels close to him have reported that Igor Ivanovich was being mistreated in prison, undermining his health. However, after Navalny’s blood clot, Girkin’s wife had to urgently write about her husband’s good health.

As we can see, the terrorist does not seem to be suicidal either. However, it was reported that he was found hanging in his cell.
Reaction in Ukraine
The Ukrainian blogosphere traditionally reacts to such things with an outpouring of harsh cynicism and sarcasm.
“In the morning I read: Girkin hanged himself in his cell. Then the news: no, he didn’t hang himself. What a weakling! All the conditions are in place: they give you sheets, the jailers make you depressed. Your main competitors were already dead before you. Prigozhin could afford to blow himself up in a plane. Navalny has a political instinct – he tore off a blood clot during the Munich conference. What about you? Be the third! It’s so Russian, so Russian, so original! If you love race, get involved!”
– urged the writer Dmitry Korchinsky.

More serious experts take the matter more seriously. Most of them agree that in this way Putin is not just “clearing out” competitors on the eve of the elections, but creating a new architecture around power in Russia. That is, Russia is moving from an autocratic form of government to direct and clear totalitarianism. Igar Tyshkevych, an expert at the Institute for the Future, believes that “the tsar has already tried on the crown and is waiting for the coronation.”
Putin is changing the concept of government from an autocratic president to an “autocrat”. These seem to be small but fundamental differences that can be described by three groups of theses.
- Relations with the elites. The autocratic president in Russia played the role of a kind of arbitrator-moderator in the war of clans. The format of an autocrat is different… There may be no compromise here – instead, there will be the “will of the Tsar”.
- The requirement of elite loyalty. Both groups and their individual representatives. After all, the autocrat can “execute and pardon”. Violation of the balance of loyalty-management-gratitude can lead to death. Take Prigozhin. He was loyal to Putin to the end, but he became uncontrollable and died. Navalny was already controlled, but not loyal. He died. Blogger “Murz”. Loyal to Putin, but only relatively controlled. He died.
- Citizens or subjects – fear and/or love. The scheme has also changed with regard to the population. Previously, Putin wanted to be loved first and feared second. A series of deaths has changed the scheme. For Putin, fear, not love, comes first in communication with the population. Although, in Russia, paradoxically, fear is what creates love.
As Arkady Babchenko, a fugitive Russian journalist, has been insisting for the past ten years, “the Reich is crystallising” and Russia is moving towards the most real totalitarian fascism.

Girkin-Strelkov
Girkin’s track record is worthy of a whole “biopic” or even several seasons of a TV series. Girkin is one of the few Russian war criminals wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. He and two other Russian militants were found guilty of shooting down the MH17 passenger jetliner in 2014, with 298 people on board.
In Bosnia, Girkin is believed to have been involved in the killing of 3,000 Bosnians during the Bosnian war. He fought on the side of the Serbs, was at the epicentre of the events and was close to the people who caused the massacre of Bosnians in 1992.
In Ukraine, Girkin is charged with creating a terrorist organisation and organising terrorist attacks. In particular, he himself confessed to involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Horlivka City Council member Volodymyr Rybak.
Who is next?
If we assume that Putin is destroying all his competitors to clear the way for totalitarianism, then Girkin is indeed one of them. The popularity of the blog-vanguard officer among the people is really high, and it is important that it is also high among z-bloggers. Therefore, Girkin’s death looks quite logical in the chain of deaths in Russia. If he really dies or has already died, Putin will be left with his only, at the moment, but strongest competitor, Ramzan Kadyrov.