A case has been opened in Ulan-Ude about calls for separatism on social networks

The FSB believes that the Buryat nationalist Vladimir Khagdaev published on the Internet calls to violate the territorial integrity of Russia.

On March 27, 2016, the FSB Department for the Republic of Buryatia opened a criminal case under Part 2 of Art. 280.1 of the Criminal Code (public calls for the implementation of actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, committed using information and telecommunication networks (including the Internet)), upon the fact of posting certain publications on the VKontakte social network.

As part of the investigation of the criminal case, a search was conducted at the home of Vladimir Khagdaev, a resident of Ulan-Ude, who, according to the investigation, from September 30, 2014 to January 16, 2015, published under the pseudonym "Chingis Bulgadaev" statements calling for the implementation of actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity of Russia.

The group on the social network led by Khagdaev was included in the Unified Register of Banned Sites and closed by the VKontakte administration, and the Chingis Bulgadaev page was blocked under the " Lugovoi law" on the basis of the request of the Prosecutor General's Office dated April 13, 2016. According to information circulated in social networks, Khagdaev only promoted pan-Mongolism as a doctrine of the cultural unity of the Mongolian peoples, and also spoke negatively about the consequences of joining the Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug to the Irkutsk Region.

We managed to get acquainted with at least part of the materials published by Khagdaev on the social network. Many of them are in the spirit of radical Buryat nationalism, and one is a quote that mentions the possibility of secession of Buryatia from Russia - but only hypothetical. We consider it unlawful and violating the right to freedom of speech to prosecute calls for separatism, if they are not accompanied by calls for violent actions, and we could not find such calls on Khagdaev's page.

Sources

• Based on social media.