Dozens demonstrate over activist imprisonment in Russia

Russian police used tear gas and hit protesters with sticks in Bashkortostan because a rights activist was given a four-year prison sentence.

Videos on social media showed Fail Alsynov’s supporters fighting with police and throwing snowballs near the court in Baymak.

Alsynov is in jail for encouraging hate between different ethnic groups, but he says he didn’t do it.

Big demonstrations in Russia hardly ever happen because people are afraid of getting arrested.

According to some news, a few thousand people are protesting. The protest has been going on for many days in very cold weather. There are also reports of some people getting hurt.

The protesters are yelling in support of Alsynov, and some of them tried to stop people from going into the courthouse after the decision was made.

Riot police shot tear gas and protesters threw snowballs at them.

He reportedly called people from Central Asia and the Caucasus region “black people”, which is considered a disrespectful term in Russia. These people make up most of the migrant population in Russia.

However, he says the words he used in the Bashkir language actually mean “poor people” and were translated incorrectly into Russian. He wants to challenge the decision.

Alsynov also disagreed with the military getting ready in the area and called it a “genocide” of the Bashkir people. The Bashkir people are similar to the Tatars and live in the southern Ural mountains.

Many people have said that a lot of people from ethnic minorities in Russia are being made to go and fight in Ukraine.

Alsynov led a group called Bashkort, which wanted to protect the culture of the Bashkirs. But in 2020, the government said it was a bad group.
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