On December 17, 2014, Girkin celebrated his 44th birthday by marrying 21-year-old native of Donbass Miroslava Reginskaya in Moscow. Four days later, the newlyweds appeared at a New Year’s event for refugee children in Rostov-on-Don. The database of domestic flights shows that when Reginskaya flew from Moscow to Rostov-on-Don on December 20 and then back two days later, she booked tickets together with Sergey Viktorovich Runov, who was born on May 12, 1970. Runov is the surname of Girkin’s maternal grandfather. Judging by numerous databases, a person with such a full name and date of birth does not actually exist.
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Other trips of “Sergey Runov” can also be compared with Girkin’s public appearances outside of Moscow, many of which he made to promote his Novorossiya Social Movement. “Sergey Runov” usually made joint flight reservations with Reginskaya, who herself also worked in the Novorossiya organization as her husband’s personal assistant. For example, on the night of January 29-30, 2015, they booked tickets together for a flight from Moscow to Novosibirsk. Girkin spent the next day in Novosibirsk press conference and gave interviews on local television. The return flight of Sergei Runov and Reginskaya was booked for the evening of March 1, and the next day, local media reported that Girkin had flown from Novosibirsk.
Another example: Sergey Runov and Reginskaya booked a morning flight from Moscow to Perm on March 12, 2015. Later that day, Girkin held a press conference there to introduce the new Perm branch of the Novorossiya organization. Two days later, Girkin gave the same press conference in Yekaterinburg – and at the same time, Reginskaya and Sergey Runov had a flight booked back from Yekaterinburg to Moscow for 19:50.
When exactly the passport of “Sergey Runov” was first issued remains unclear. According to the Russian database Magistral, the passport was first used for a train ticket from Moscow to St. Petersburg on November 25–26, 2014 (a video interview with Girkin on the local St. three months after Girkin’s departure from the Donbass. The passport number indicates that it should have been issued back in 2002 or 2003, but since old forms are often used for cover identity, this is not indicative.
But what is known for sure is that the Russian special services at least once reissued Girkin’s passport in the name of Runov. This happened some time after “Sergei Runov” turned 45 years old (the age at which Russian citizens must obtain a new internal passport).
Girkin’s last known flight with a “Sergey Runov” passport was a flight from Moscow to Stavropol on February 14, 2016 with a return ticket in three days, although there may have been other trips that are not known to us. Girkin told The Insider that he did not comment on the fact that he had a cover passport, and Reginskaya, after listening to The Insider’s question, hung up.
A cover passport for Girkin could have been given to both the FSB and the GRU. But a search of the passport numbers adjacent to Runov at the air base turned up six more fake Russian internal passports from the same series, some of these individuals were identified by The Insider and Bellingcat as FSB officers. And these employees are very remarkable.
DonDay.ru, 09/18/2019, “The court supported the wife of Igor Girkin, who took away the apartment from his ex-wife and children”: Edition DonDay.ru has already told the history of the conflict between the former and new family of Igor Strelkov-Girkin. When he was appointed Minister of Defense of the DPR, his ex-wife Vera Girkina and children began to receive threats. Due to fears for her life and health, Vera and her children had to leave their apartment in the capital and hide in the Rostov region. For several years, the woman independently provided for children common with Girkin. He, in turn, found a new lover and started another family.
Later, the new wife, Miroslava Reginskaya, announced herself. She, in court, demanded that Vera and her sons be discharged from the apartment that the former head of the family, Igor Girkin, once gave them. The plaintiff said that they had not lived in the apartment for a long time and did not pay utility bills. At the same time, Reginskaya claimed that she, Girkin and their common child had nowhere to live. Vera, in turn, said that she was forced to leave the living space, due to a difficult life situation.
The court took the side of Reginskaya. The fact of donating the apartment was ignored, the guardianship authorities were not involved in the consideration of the case. Only Vera’s disabled son, Andrey, was not deprived of registration. However, the child, in fact, was in a difficult position. After the court decision, Igor Strelkov-Girkin and Miroslava Reginskaya began to rent an apartment. Accordingly, Andrei cannot live in it. Both Vera Girkina and Miroslava Reginskaya appealed against the decision of the court of first instance. Reginskaya asked to be evicted from Andrey’s apartment. Under all circumstances of the case, the court did not consider Vera’s petitions and took the side of Reginskaya. — Inset K.ru
The “LPR” under Plotnitsky was characterized by authoritarian rule, widespread corruption and complete dependence on neighboring Russia. Plotnitsky’s stated position was that the “LPR” would eventually join Russia through a referendum similar to the one held in Crimea in 2014.
The cover passport was also found in Plotnitsky, and due to the same mistake as Girkin: he flew on it with his wife Larisa Plotnitskaya (who reportedly died in 2020).
According to the flight database, it can be seen that on November 7, 2014, Plotnitskaya flew from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow together with Russian citizen Igor Vladimirovich Plotnikov, whose date of birth is indicated on June 24, 1964 – the same as that of Plotnitsky. The exact reason for this trip is unknown, but it is noteworthy that Plotnitsky received the position of head of the “LPR” just three days before. In addition, flight data indicates that his then colleague Alexander Zakharchenko, who was sworn in as the head of the “DPR” on the same day as Plotnitsky, also flew from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow shortly after the inauguration. which also suggests that these trips were most likely business trips.
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The earliest example of Plotnitsky using a passport in the name “Igor Plotnikov” was for a flight from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow on September 4, 2014, that is, the day before he appeared in Minsk with Zakharchenko for signing the Minsk Protocol. He also used this cover passport to fly the same route on September 18, and the next day Plotnitsky and Zakharchenko arrived in Minsk for the second time to sign a memorandum in addition to the Minsk Protocol.
In a conversation with The Insider, Plotnitsky said that he did not remember exactly where he flew in 2014, but he was sure that he always flew only with a passport in his name.
The “Plotnikov” passport belonged to the same range as the passports used by prominent GRU officers. For example, a passport with a number one digit below “Plotnikov” – 4514500473 – in the name of Nikolai Konstantinovich Alekseev (born 04/07/1980) was used by a GRU officer in the Netherlands during a failed cyber operation against the OPCW in 2018.
Thus, Plotnitsky’s passport was most likely also issued by the GRU.
Plotnitsky stepped down as head of the “LPR” at the end of 2017 and fled to Moscow during a power struggle that broke out in the separatist republic.