Onetime Russian Hero Selling Gold Crimea Medal Bearing 'Despised' Putin

[TomSea]

Onetime Russian Hero Selling Gold Crimea Medal Bearing 'Despised' Putin
Ron Synovitz

The Russian former commander of militants in eastern Ukraine is out of cash and out of favor with the Kremlin, leading him to sell a gold medal he was awarded in 2014 for his role in the occupation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

Igor Girkin, a 48-year-old self-described Russian nationalist who goes by the nom de guerre Strelkov, says he is selling the medal because he needs the money and has no respect for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is depicted on the medal triumphantly wearing a laurel wreath.

Girkin is under U.S. and European Union sanctions both for his role in the seizure of Crimea and as the onetime military leader of pro-Russian separatists fighting against Kyiv's forces in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region.

Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-water-idUSKBN1QS2SN