The Philharmonic in the city of Sibay (Bashkortostan) canceled the concert planned for January 25 with the participation of AKYEGET - singer Akyeget Valitov. The musician himself announced this on his Instagram.
The performance was canceled “not by us, I think everyone understands why! But life doesn’t end there, I hope when everything is more or less settled, we will be able to come and make you happy, businesswoman Rekhmat for your understanding! Berzemlektә kos,” commented the performer (author’s punctuation preserved - OVD-Info).
Akyeget is likely the older brother of musician Altynay Valitov, whose home the police came to twice because of his video in support of convicted activist Fail Alsynov. On January 19, security forces conducted a search at Altynay. Akyeget Valitov later published a video in support of Altynay Valitov, and reposted materials about Alsynov.
February 16 At the Bashkir Drama Theater named after Mazhit Gafuri, songs by musician Altynay Valitov, who spoke out in support of convicted activist Fail Alsynov, were removed from the performance. RusNews reports this.
“By order of the Minister of Culture, five of my songs were removed from the performance,” the musician said.
The news headline was changed due to the emergence of information about pressure on another musician
- Fail Alsynov was sentenced to four years in prison because of his speech in the Bashkir language at the April gathering of residents of the Baymak region 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.”