On July 10 and 24, the Elista City Court, respectively, fined the deputy chairmen of the Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk people, Vladimir Dovdanov and Batyr Boromangnaev, 70 thousand rubles under the article on calls for violating the territorial integrity of Russia on the Internet (Part 2 of Article 20.3.2 of the Administrative Code). This was reported by the press service of the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs; case files ( 1 , 2 ) are available on the court’s website.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the reason for drawing up the protocols was video recordings of a “destructive nature”; details about their content were not provided.
As Kavkaz.Realii notes , Dovdanov himself and the ex-chairman of the local branch of Yabloko, Boromangaev, now live abroad, and they also do not know the reason for the fines.
At the beginning of March 2022, the Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk people demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, supported the Ukrainian people, and also called on the citizens of Kalmykia not to go to war. At the end of October, activists adopted a declaration of independence for the Republic of Kalmykia; On August 5, the Ministry of Justice added it to the list of extremist materials.
- In December 2022, Kalmyk activist Altan Ochirov’s sentence was increased to five years in prison under the article on “fake news” about the Russian army due to publications in the “Volny Ulus” telegram channel. According to Network Freedoms, the investigation was also interested in other active participants in the Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk People, including Boromangnaev and Dovdanov.
- Batyr Boromangnaev was regularly persecuted in Elista. On August 20, 2021, the politician was sentenced to 20 hours of compulsory work due to his participation in the congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk people. The event took place in a private and closed area, where random passers-by from the street could not enter. December 10, 2021 The Elista City Court found Boromangnaev guilty of insulting the authorities in the person of President Vladimir Putin, sentencing him to a fine of 30 thousand rubles. In February 2022, another report was drawn up against him under the same article due to a comparison of the economic policies of Nazi Germany and modern Russia, and he was also detained while filming an anti-war picket.