Bashkir activist Fail Alsynov was asked to serve four years in prison under the article on inciting hatred or enmity (Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code). RusNews reported this.
The criminal case became known in October 2023, after which it was investigated for less than a month, and in November the indictment was already approved . Alsynov is being persecuted because of his speech in the Bashkir language at the April gathering of residents of the Baymaksky district against gold miners, a recording of which, according to law enforcement officers, he later published on the Internet. According to the prosecution, the activist “negatively assessed” the groups of people “residents of the North Caucasus or Central Asia”, “Armenians”. The man explained that the security forces “didn’t like” his statement about “migrants who come to the republic and engage here, among other things, in illegal mining.”
At the end of October 2023, Alsynov said that his friends and acquaintances began to receive threats due to reposts of the activist’s publications.
Previously, Alsynov had already been brought to administrative responsibility under the article on inciting hatred or enmity (Article 20.3.1 of the Administrative Code). According to investigators, the activist “did not draw the proper conclusions for himself and again committed actions against the foundations of the constitutional order and the security of the state.” A criminal case was opened after a letter from the head of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Radiy Khabirov, to the Investigative Committee demanding that the activist be brought to criminal responsibility.
- Fail Alsynov is the ex-leader of the national movement “Bashkort,” which was recognized as extremist in Russia and banned in 2020. In December 2022, he was fined under the article on inciting hatred (Article 20.3.1 of the Administrative Code) due to an appeal in which the activist called the mobilization of the Bashkirs “genocide of the Bashkir people.” Then the security forces searched his car and seized his mobile phone. After this, Alsynov was detained and taken to the local FSB department, where a protocol was drawn up under the article on discrediting the army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code). The reason for this was the same post on social networks about the war in Ukraine.