Russia: nine new convictions in Bashkortostan, where demonstrations continue
Nine people arrested in Baimak, in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, during protests were sentenced to several days in prison, the city’s court announced on Friday, as protest rallies, rare in Russia, continue.
Sentences of eight to fifteen days of detention were handed down against the nine defendants found guilty of participation “at an unauthorized public event”he specifies in a press release.
They were arrested on Wednesday, during a demonstration organized in front of a court in Baimak, a town of 17,000 inhabitants near Kazakhstan, after the sentence to four years in prison of the opponent Faïl Alsynov, critic of the Russian offensive in Ukraine and campaigns in particular against the exploitation of Bashkortostan’s energy resources. He was tried behind closed doors for “inciting hatred or hostility as well as attacking the dignity of a person or a group of people because of sex, race, nationality , language, origin, religion and membership in a social group.”
According to the NGO OVD-Info, 6,000 people took part in the rally, which gave rise to clashes with the police. Around twenty were arrested and six were sentenced Thursday to a few days in prison.
Such a display of anger is extremely rare in Russia, where any criticism of power is punishable by prison.
Several dozen supporters of Faïl Alsynov gathered again on Friday, this time in Ufa, capital of Bashkortostan, despite a large police force, show videos broadcast on social networks where we can see the police carrying out arrests.
A few dozen meters further, other demonstrators were reciting the verses of the local hero Salavat Yulaev, an 18th century Bashkir poet.e century whose imposing statue adjoins the convention center, along the Belaïa river.
The Kremlin has not commented on Wednesday’s incidents in Baimak, but Radi Khabirov, president of Bashkortostan, denounced calls for “separatism”.