Clashes broke out on Wednesday between thousands of demonstrators and the police in a small town in the Urals after the condemnation of a regional opponent critical of the assault in Ukraine, a rare event in Russia in a context of all-out repression.
The Russian Investigative Committee reported injuries, including police officers, after these clashes and announced the opening of an investigation into organizing “mass riots” and violence against the police, crimes punishable by heavy penalties. from prison.
Demonstrators in Baimak, in the republic of Bashkortostan, were dispersed with tear gas while around twenty people were arrested, according to the specialized NGO OVD-Info, an organization classified as a “foreign agent” by the Russian state.
Some 6,000 people protested in front of the court where activist Faïl Alsynov was being tried, this organization said. In videos posted on social media, crowds of warmly dressed people could be seen throwing snowballs in -20°C weather at police carrying shields and others chanting: “Shame! “.
Images also showed demonstrators coughing heavily and wiping their eyes after the use of tear gas by law enforcement in this town of some 17,000 inhabitants located not far from Kazakhstan.
The protesters now face up to 15 years in prison if the charge of participating in a “riot” is upheld.
According to OVD-Info, which documents demonstrations and arrests in Russia and helps opponents, “dozens of people have been injured” and access to mobile Internet is “almost” completely cut off on site.
Such an explosion of anger in the street has become extremely rare in Russia, where any criticism of power can be punished with a prison sentence.
The previous large-scale movements in the streets date back to the fall of 2022, at the time of the mobilization campaign of hundreds of thousands of reservists, civilians therefore, to strengthen the ranks of the army engaged in Ukraine.
“Fight for justice”
Faïl Alsynov, an activist who fights in particular against the exploitation of energy resources in Bashkortostan and who denounced the Russian assault in Ukraine, was sentenced earlier Wednesday in Baimak to four years in prison for “incitement to hatred”.
It was this judgment, delivered behind closed doors, which led thousands of his supporters to demonstrate in front of the court.
The case dates back to last year: in a speech against the exploitation of gold mines, Mr. Alsynov used two words in Bashkir, the local language, described as racist by the authorities.
The activist has since claimed that his remarks were poorly translated into Russian: “I do not admit my guilt. I have always fought for justice, for my people, for my republic,” he defended again after the verdict was announced. “We will appeal.”
In its judgment, the Baimak court ruled that Mr. Alsynov’s remarks had been intended to “incite hatred and humiliate the dignity of a group of people on the basis of race, nationality, language or origin.
“Not our war”
The region’s Ministry of the Interior had for its part called on Tuesday not to demonstrate in front of the court, an offense “punishable by law”, it recalled in a press release.
This call to order from the authorities came the day after a first large-scale demonstration in support of Fail Alsynov in Baimak, during which several hundred people demanded from President Vladimir Putin, according to videos on social networks, the resignation of regional governor Radiï Khabirov, who had criticized this activist.
“We are not extremists!” We are not Nazis! », shouted a man standing on a pile of snow. “We just want the law to be respected! »
According to local media, Mr. Alsynov was fined last year for criticizing the Russian army’s mobilization campaign in 2022, calling it a “genocide of the Bashkir people” and saying that the offensive of the Russia against its Ukrainian neighbor “was not our war”.