Russia protest: Demonstrators clash with riot police over jailing of rights activist

Thousands gathered in a rare large protest in the Russian region of Bashkortostan and clashed with riot police who fired tear gas and hit protesters with batons, on Wednesday (Jan 17), after a prominent local rights activist was sentenced to four years in a penal colony.

Rare protest turned violent

According to Russia’s Investigative Committee, several people, including law enforcement officials, were injured during the protest and subsequent clashes.

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“During the mass disturbances, which were accompanied by violence, including the use of objects used as weapons, several people were injured, including members of law enforcement agencies,” said the investigators.

A monitoring group, OVD-Info group reported that dozens of people were detained, and injured, and one protester had suffered a “smashed head”.

The clashes broke out between the police and a large crowd of people who had gathered in support of the activist, Fail Alsynov in the small Russian town of Baymak.

Large protests are extremely rare in Russia given the risk of arrest over any gatherings which the authorities deem unauthorised.

According to reports, a few thousand people gathered for the demonstration which went on for several days in temperatures as low as -20 degree Celsius.

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Footage of the incident showed protesters pelting the police with snowballs which harmlessly smashed against their shields. Several people have also reportedly been detained.

According to the SOTA, an opposition Telegram channel, the clashes broke out after protesters blocked the court building in a bid to try to stop Alsynov from being taken away.

About Alsynov and his trial

The local activist was jailed for inciting ethnic hatred and was accused of insulting migrant workers in a speech he made last year over plans to mine for gold in Bashkortostan. A charge which he has since denied saying that his words were mistranslated from the Bashkir language.

However, Alsynov’s supporters said that the case against him was revenge for his role in protests several years earlier during which activists successfully blocked plans to mine for soda on a hill that local people consider a sacred place.

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“Huge thanks to everyone who came to support me. I will never forget this. I don’t admit my guilt,” the local activist told online media outlet RusNews after the verdict. He added, “I always fought for justice, for my people, for my republic,”

Some people in the crowd were heard shouting “Shame!”while others called for the dismissal of the local governor, Radiy Khabirov who accused Alsynov of using racist language.

In his speech in April 2023, the local activist used two words in Bashkir that were translated into Russian as “black people,” which is considered a derogatory term in Russian. However, he insists the words he used in the Bashkir language mean “poor people”.

‘Mass rioting’

Local Russian officials have already opened a criminal case into what it described as “mass rioting” which, according to Russian law carried a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

Rafail Divayev, head of the local interior ministry, urged the protesters to back down, asking them to “come to your senses and not ruin your life”.

“Mass riots threaten our country’s national security, therefore the punishment under this article is quite serious,” the state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted him as saying.

The protests were one of the largest demonstrations in Russia since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

(With inputs from agencies)