In Bashkortostan, another protest participant in Baymak died. Local media reports he may have committed suicide

On February 13, another protest participant in Baymak was buried in Bashkortostan - 65-year-old native of the village of Kaskinovo Miniyar Bayguskarov, who lived in the city of Meleuz.

According to sources, the man allegedly committed suicide because he was “pressured and driven to suicide.” Bayguskarov left a suicide note, but its exact contents are unknown. There is no information about the man being brought to administrative responsibility for an offense or as a defendant in a criminal case.

This is the second death of a participant in mass protests in defense of environmental activist Fail Alsynov: on February 6, residents of the republic said goodbye to 37-year-old Rifat Dautov. The man was detained on January 25 in the village of Novye Chebenki, Zianchurinsky district, in connection with “mass riots”; the circumstances of his death are still unknown.

Pro-government media claimed that, according to a preliminary version, Dautov was poisoned with substitute alcohol and died in a police car before the ambulance arrived. Later, the man's relatives said that he did not drink alcohol.

On the day of Dautov’s funeral, at a meeting with representatives of the World Kurultai of Bashkirs, the head of the republic, Radiy Khabirov, refused to honor his memory with a minute of silence: “What are you proposing? To honor the memory of a man who committed and is accused of a serious crime - organizing mass riots and assault on an employee - and who had to be taken by special forces? - said Khabirov.

Over the past month, more than a hundred administrative and dozens of criminal cases have been opened in Bashkortostan against Alsynov’s associates. On January 17, the environmental activist was sentenced to 4 years in prison following a denunciation by the head of the region for speaking at a public gathering in defense of the Irendyk mountain range, part of which officials wanted to give to gold miners for development. He was found guilty of inciting interethnic hatred for the phrase that representatives of different nations living in Bashkortostan will be able to leave for other lands if environmental problems begin in the republic, and the Bashkirs have no other land.

People, demanding the release of Alsynov, gathered on the day of the verdict at the courthouse in Baymak, and on January 19, as a sign of support, residents came to the monument in the center of Ufa, where clashes with the police and arrests also took place.

Previously, “Smola” told, using the example of protecting Mount Kushtau, how residents of Bashkortostan, systematically uniting to protect nature, create a civil society.