Near the Baymaksky District Court, where the verdict was announced today for Bashkir activist and ex-leader of the Bashkort movement Fail Alsynov, detentions of his supporters began.
According to an OVD-Info correspondent, about six thousand people came to support the activist, despite the 20-degree frost.
The court sentenced Alsynov to four years in a general regime colony - this is a more severe punishment than the prosecutor requested. After the verdict was announced, arrests and clashes between the activist’s supporters and security forces began.
9:40 A SOTA correspondent reports from the scene that at least two people gathered near the court have injuries after clashes with security forces: one person has a broken face, another has an injured leg. Police are also reported to be using tear gas.
Within a radius of several kilometers from the building of the Baymak District Court, the Internet was almost completely jammed, ASTRA wrote about this.
10:21 According to the Once Upon a Time in Bashkiria channel, about five people are now detained near the courthouse.
10:42 Activist Salavat Idelbaev was given a summons near the courthouse and then taken to the FSB. This was reported by Kushtau Bayram.
According to RusNews, one of the protesters was broken in the head by security forces.
11:42 An OVD-Info correspondent reports from the scene that at the moment security forces have detained about 20 protesters. About 20 more people turned to doctors for help.
She also noted that Alsynov had still not been taken out of the courthouse.
12:24 The Telegram channel “Once Upon a Time in Bashkiria” reports that security forces began using stun grenades against the protesters, and again sprayed tear gas.
12:57 “VKontakte”, at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office, blocked the group of Bashkir activists “Irandyk Sabantuy”. Representatives of the group wrote about this in their Telegram channel.
13:22 The Telegram channel of activists “Kushtau Bayram”, which covered the protests in Baymak, became unavailable. The last post there was published at 12:59 Moscow time. The channel was also unavailable the night before.
13:51 Also, the RusNews channel, which covered what was happening in Baymak, disappeared from the telegram.
14:39 Security forces opened criminal cases of mass riots (Article 212 of the Criminal Code) against protesters near the court in Baymak. The head of the public council of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic reported this to RIA Novosti.
14:51 Fail Alsynov was taken away from the courthouse. Those who came to support him gradually disperse. This was reported by an OVD-Info correspondent from the scene.
14:56 The RusNews channel has become available again in Telegram.
15:07 The SerleArba page, which was broadcasting live from the courthouse in Baymak, was blocked on Instagram. Astra drew attention to this.
15:16 Telegram channel “Once Upon a Time in Bashkiria” reports that Alsynov was taken to Beloretsk.
15:25 Now four people remain detained, the rest have been released. It is not specified whether protocols were drawn up against them. “Once Upon a Time in Bashkiria” writes about this.
16:30 A criminal case was opened under articles on organizing mass riots (Part 1 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code) and participation in them (Part 2 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code), as well as under the article on the use of violence against security forces (Article 318 of the Criminal Code) . This is clarified by the local branch of the Investigative Committee.
19:35 According to the Kushtau Bayram telegram channel, at least 40 people were injured during the protests; Eight of them were diagnosed with serious injuries.
20:25 The Kirovsky District Court of Ufa arrested six detainees near the court building. “Verstka” writes about this with reference to one of the arrested.
Denis Skvortsov, Fanzil Akhmetshin, Yulay Aralbaev, Radmir Mukhametshin and Dmitry Petrov were each given 10 days of arrest, and Ilnar Galina - 13 days. All of them were charged with the “protest” article (Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code). It is unknown which part of this article the activists are charged with. However, arrest is possible in parts for organizing an uncoordinated event (Part 2 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences), of obstructing traffic (Part 6.1 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences) and of causing damage (Part 3 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences).
Why the detainees were taken to Ufa is also still unknown.
January 18, 10:05 In Baymak, security forces detained two students of the Ufa Fuel and Energy College Vilnur and Gaziz. RusNews reports this.
According to eyewitnesses, about 15 security officials came to the college and began checking the students’ phones. It is clarified that Vilnur was detained because of posts on VKontakte.
20:50 The Telegram press service stated that the messenger did not block access to it in Bashkortostan. The company suggested that the outages may be associated “with the actions of local telecom operators.” The response from the press service was published by the BBC Russian Service.
“We encountered DDoS attacks on a number of channels and a stream of massive complaints about calls for violence, due to which some channels may have stopped opening. Access to some of the channels has already been restored, and we continue to look into the situation,” the press service says.
On January 19, the Baimaksky District Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan arrested nine participants in the public gathering in support of Fail Alsynov in Baimak on January 17. RusNews reports this.
All of them were found guilty under the article of disobedience to a lawful order of a police officer and were sentenced to arrests from 8 to 15 days:
- Artur Mukhametov - 8 days, Danis Gaisin - 10 days, Daniyar Markabaev - 9 days, Salavat Elkibaev - 10 days, Yulaya Zamanova - 12 days, Ramila Mullagildina - 13 days, Dayana Mazitova - 15 days, Zulfata Tagirova - 10 days, Marcel Ishmuratov - 10 days.
January 20 Videos with “refutations” from people who previously spoke out in support of Fail Alsynov appeared online . The Agency writes about this. News". A resident of Bashkortostan, Vadim Aftakhov , who is fighting on the side of Russia in Ukraine, retracted his words and said that he made a mistake by recording a video in support of the convicted person; in the video published by the “Bashkir Battalion” telegram channel, at the moment when he talks about this, two people in uniform are standing next to him, one of them is armed. Developer Aigiz Kunafin, who created a prototype of a “smart” speaker that understands the Bashkir language, said that he did not publish a call to go to a protest, but invited residents of the region to a presentation of his project. The man explained that he had been misunderstood. He later published another post in which he again emphasized that an error had occurred.
- 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.