Demonstrators angered at a jail sentence handed to an activist have faced off with police outside a courthouse in one of Russia’s biggest protests since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine spurred a clampdown on dissent.
Putin’s domestic military force, the Rosgvardia, has reportedly dispatched troops to Baymak, a town of 17,000 people located 1,100 miles east of Moscow in the Republic of Bashkortostan where protesters gathered to support Fail Alsynov, who had been sentenced to four years in prison for “inciting ethnic hatred.”
Dan Storyev, the English-language editor of the Russian human rights project OVD-info, which has reporters at the scene, told Newsweek the protests showed that Russian society is willing “to stand up for their rights despite the horrific repression.”
In temperatures of –21 C (-5 F), Russian police used smoke grenades, tear gas, and batons to disperse the crowd, which consisted of thousands of people, according to the outlet Idel.Realii, which is part of U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe. There were also reports on Telegram of arrests.
Alsynov’s sentence has mobilized many in the Ural Mountains republic who say that he is being targeted due to his achievements in defending the culture and language of the indigenous Bashkir peoples.
In December 2022, Alsynov, 37, spoke out against the war in Ukraine started by Putin, calling his partial mobilization a “genocide of the Bashkir peoples” in a VKontakte post that landed him a 10,000 ruble ($113) fine for violating wartime censorship laws.
But Alsynov was charged for a phrase he made during a protest rally in April 2023 in the Bashkir language that investigators said was an ethnic slur, but that reportedly carries a meaning closer to “simple folk.”
He is also renowned for his role in the 2020 environmental protests against limestone mining on Kushtau mountain in Bashkortostan’s Ishimbaysky district.
Alsynov’s sentencing was originally scheduled for Monday but following protests there, was postponed to Wednesday, although the demonstrations two days later were much bigger.
The outlet Rusnews reported that police blocked off the road to the court, and there are reports that authorities jammed the city’s Internet connection. The Telegram channels of NEXTA and Bashkortostan Live reported that Rosgvardia personnel were on their way to the scene.
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“The Kremlin is now fighting a war on two fronts—in Ukraine, of course, but also a domestic war against any and all forms of dissent,” said Storyev. “The persecution of Alsynov is a part of this pattern of widening crackdown. In Bashkortostan, this repressive drive faces off against a passionate community that is used to standing up for its rights.
“While it’s too early to say whether the protests spell drastic trouble for the Kremlin, the protests do show that Russian society is willing to protest and stand up for their rights despite the horrific repression.”
Newsweek reached out to the Kremlin for comment.
Despite the curb in freedoms since the start of the war in Ukraine, there have been public demonstrations of anger against the Kremlin, which could pose a problem for Putin, who is standing again for the presidency in elections in March.
Last weekend, family members of mobilized Russian troops protested the war and conditions for soldiers by laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the Kremlin wall.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.