The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case of extremism against the head of the Uzbek community because of a picture about “roosters” who need to be brought back from the front

The Moscow Office of the Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against the head of the interregional Uzbek community "Vatandosh" Usman Baratov, he is suspected of inciting hatred or enmity (clause "b" of part 2 of article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). This was reported by the press service of the Investigative Committee.

According to investigators, in December 2023, Baratov and “other individuals” published a post on social networks that “degrades the dignity of a group of individuals from among Russian citizens,” including participants in a special military operation.”

Baratov was taken to the Moscow Investigative Committee for investigative actions.

The Investigative Committee did not specify what exactly was discussed in Baratov’s post.

The day before, the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, demanded that a criminal case be opened against Baratov. According to the report, Russian "war correspondents" approached him and asked him to respond to Baratov's offensive statements about the participants in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

We are talking about Baratov's post on Odnoklassniki. He illustrated the news about the rise in egg prices with a picture of chickens and the caption: "Screw you with butter, not eggs! Bring back the roosters from the front."

Baratov himself expressed regret that his assistant had not removed for a whole month the “satirical photo of chickens, which has nothing to do with the alleged insults to the SVO members that I am accused of.”

• The Vatandosh organization's VKontakte page, which has not been updated for several years, says that it provides legal assistance to labor migrants and helps with learning Russian. Ibrahim Khudaiberdiev, president of the Federal National-Cultural Autonomy of Uzbeks of Russia, claimed that the organization that Baratov claims to lead does not exist.