On February 13, Minniyar Bayguskarov, a participant in the events in Baymak, was buried in Bashkortostan. This was reported by local media and relatives of those persecuted due to the protests.
“They said that they had brought the man down and he was no more. They buried him the day before yesterday,” wrote the brother of one of the defendants in the mass unrest case, Ilgiz Bayguskarov, who managed to contact the family of the deceased. According to relatives, the man left a suicide note, its contents are unknown. Some sources report that he was “pressed and driven to suicide.”
Minniyar Bayguskarov was born in 1958 in the village of Kaskinovo, Kugarchinsky district, he lived in Meleuz.
- Fail Alsynov is a Bashkir activist and ex-leader of the Bashkort movement, who was sentenced to four years in prison for speaking at a national gathering. On January 17, the day Alsynov was sentenced, residents of Bashkortostan who sympathized with the activist gathered at the court. After the verdict was announced, security forces began to detain protesters, and clashes began. Administrative cases and a criminal case for mass riots were opened against the participants of the gathering, which became the reason for numerous searches, detentions and arrests. OVD-Info talked about how security forces persecute residents of Bashkortostan here .
- A criminal case against Alsynov was opened in October 2023 due to an April speech at a gathering of residents of the Baymak region against gold miners, which he conducted entirely in the Bashkir language. In it, the activist criticized the mobilization in the republic and the lack of access of local residents to the natural resources of the region. Alsynov himself later explained that the security forces “didn’t like” his statement about “migrants who come to the republic and are engaged here, including in illegal mining.” Before the sentencing, he was under recognizance not to leave the place.
- There are three known large rallies that took place in January in support of Alsynov: January 15 and 17 in Baymak , January 19 in Ufa . According to OVD-Info as of February 13, 52 people, including two women, became involved in a criminal case in this regard. Most of them were sent to a pre-trial detention center; the whereabouts of some are unknown. People are being prosecuted under articles on organizing mass riots (Part 1 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code), participating in them (Part 2 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code), as well as using violence against a government official (Article 318 of the Criminal Code), some were charged with several articles at once . At least one of the defendants, Dim Davletkildin, was severely beaten . Another, Rifat Dautov, died after being detained; his relatives were not told the cause of death and were not given a report. 16 people were detained and arrested under the article on disobedience to a police officer (Part 1 of Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), another 4 people - under Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, before opening a criminal case against them. In total, from January 15 to January 31, the courts of Bashkortostan received 163 administrative cases in the wake of protests, of which 123 were under the article on disobedience to the police (Part 1 of Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code). 155 cases were filed against men, 8 against women. Detainees were more often given administrative arrests than fines.