The prison sentence of a respected Bashkir activist sparked serious unrest in the small town of Baimak on Wednesday. The protest against the court ruling ended in serious clashes between the riot services and the protesters, who had gathered in front of the Palace of Justice to support Faíl Alsinov, a well-known defender of the natural resources and traditions of Bashkortostan, a Russian republic. Muslim majority in the Volga region south of the Urals.
To disperse the protesters, the police used tear gas and stun grenades. Videos on social media show several protesters wiping their eyes and coughing heavily. In one of them, a woman shouts “Gas!” Several hundred people gathered on the square in front of the court, according to the ufa1.ru portal. According to the specialized NGO OVD-Info, there were 6,000 protesters and the police detained around twenty.
Baimak is a small town of 17,000 inhabitants in the Republic of Bashkortostan, a Russian oil-producing region of just over four million inhabitants, the majority, one million, of which live in the capital, Ufa. It is located 1,380 kilometers east of Moscow and near the border with Kazakhstan.
Events like those in Baimak have been rare in the last two years in Russia, immersed in the conflict with Ukraine and where any type of protest not authorized by power can lead to serious fines and possible prison sentences.
The spark that set Baimak Square on fire was the trial against Faíl Alsínov, known for leading mobilizations in recent years in defense of Bashkiria’s energy resources.
The court should have handed down a ruling last Monday, January 15, but postponed its decision for two days, perhaps because hundreds of followers gathered in front of the courthouse.
That day, several videos were published on networks asking the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, for the resignation of the governor of Bashkortostan, Radi Jabirov. The court finally decided to read the sentence on January 17, but behind closed doors, and sentenced Alsinov to four years in prison for “inciting hatred.”
Justice believes that this crime was committed by the activist in April of last year, when at a municipal meeting he gave a speech against the exploitation of the region’s gold mines.
In his statement, in Bashkir language, he uttered the expression “kara jalyk”, which linguistic experts interpreted literally (“black people”) as an insult against the “inhabitants of the Caucasus”, “Central Asia” and “Armenians”, labor immigrants in Bashkiria. This interpretation coincides with that of Khabirov’s governor, who had accused him of insulting the peoples of Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Alsinov denies this and stated at trial that the expression had been poorly translated into Russian. According to him, he meant “common people”, referring to the residents of Bashkortostan.
“Thank you very much to everyone who has come to support me. I do not recognize my guilt. I have always fought for justice, for my people, for my republic,” the activist defended himself after the verdict was announced, according to a video broadcast by the channel Jack. He also announced that he will appeal the sentence.
Faíl Alsínov, 37, was one of the leaders in the protests that a few years ago managed to block plans for mining a mountain, Shikhan Kushtáu, which the local population considers sacred and a symbol of Bashkortostan. Last year he criticized the Russian military campaign in Ukraine. And until 2020 he was one of the leaders of Bashkort, a citizen movement to preserve the culture, language and ethnic identity of the region’s indigenous population. Three years ago this organization was declared extremist and banned.
