Federal media ignored protests in Bashkiria that escalated into clashes with police

The largest federal media did not report mass protests in Bashkiria, which on Wednesday escalated into clashes with the police. Some publications did not even report the verdict against activist Fail Alsynov, who caused some of the largest protests since the beginning of the war.

Details . Among those who wrote about Alsynov’s sentence (four years in a penal colony) were the state agencies RIA Novosti and TASS , the Interfax agency, as well as Moskovsky Komsomolets , Komsomolskaya Pravda , RBC and Kommersant .

• “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”, “Gazeta.Ru”, “Vedomosti”, as well as the TV channels “Russia 1” and “Channel One” (in news broadcasts at 9:00 Moscow time, that is, 11:00 Ufa time) completely ignored the topic verdict and protests in Bashkiria.
• The only major news publications reported about protests and clashes with security forces were Lenta.ru and News.ru.

Context . The protests in the Bashkir city of Baymak have become some of the largest in Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine. According to local activists, about 10 thousand people took to the streets on Wednesday (out of a city population of 17.7 thousand).

• The action escalated into a clash with the security forces: riot police beat up the protesters and used smoke bombs, and activists threw pieces of frozen snow, hats, and gloves at the security forces, snatched batons from their hands and threw them away. According to Vestka, security forces detained several dozen people. An ambulance arrived at the scene of the protest, NeMoskva Says writes . RusNews reported that one of the protesters was broken in the head by security forces.
• The reason for the protests was the verdict of local activist Fail Alsynov, who on Wednesday was sentenced to four years in a general regime colony. Alsynov is one of the most famous Bashkir social activists. The case was opened against him at the request of the head of Bashkortostan, Radiy Khabirov. Read more about the case here .