The Russia Report

Issue 186

From the editor

Riot police in the town of Baymak in the Republic of Bashkortostan struggled to defend themselves against protesters throwing snowballs at them on Wednesday after environmental activist Fail Alsynov was sentenced to four years in prison for “inciting hatred” during a speech last April in which he criticised illegal gold mining and allegedly denigrated migrants. Alsynov, 37, had said that Bashkirs are “the black people”, which Russians use as an offensive term for people from the Caucasus and Central Asia. He has also campaigned for the preservation of the Bashkir language and spoken out against the invasion of Ukraine. In August 2020 Alsynov was one of the protesters who succeeded in preventing the exploitation of the Kushtau hills by a limestone mining company.

Protesters in Baymak throw snowballs at riot police after Alsynov’s sentencing

The complaint about Alsynov was made by the head of Bashkortostan himself, Radiy Khabirov. After the verdict the activist said he didn’t understand Khabirov’s policies. “I have always fought for justice, for my people, for my republic,” he insisted. “I didn’t expect this, of course.” “I don’t understand what Khabirov needs from us,” Alsynov’s wife Galiya commented, in tears. “They want to put an honest man in prison, who did everything for the good of his country.” 

Alsynov’s sentencing may also have sparked wider awareness of the general plight of indigenous peoples in Russia and their exploitation in the war. Rapper Morgenshtern, who was born in Ufa, the capital of Bashkortostan, posted a picture of himself on social media in traditional Bashkir fur headgear. Bashkir musician Altynay Valitov made a video in which he called on indigenous peoples to protest. “We don’t want our people to be killed in the war. We don’t want our land to be robbed and destroyed,” he said. He subsequently made a video in which he said police were at his home and called on people to come and support him. After that he stopped answering phone calls and text messages.

A group of soldiers from Bashkortostan also joined the cause, saying in a video with their faces hidden, “We are against this, he isn’t guilty of anything… Every man should fight for his land, for his people and for his language. That’s what demonstrates the actions of a true man. We’re proud of him!” Numerous people who participated in the protests in support of Alsynov have been jailed for terms from 10 to 15 days. Thousands turned out in Baymak despite temperatures of about -20.

This morning hundreds of people began gathering in Ufa’s Salawat Yulayev Square, telling bemused riot police that they were tourists who had come to look at the statue of the 18^th-century Bashkir national hero. They danced and sang a traditional Bashkir song, “My Urals,” based on a poem by Yulayev. Some were detained, including a woman wearing a sign in the Bashkir language saying “Black person”.

It has hardly been a secret that a disproportionate number of minority ethnic people from remote regions have been drafted to fight in Ukraine compared with ethnic Russians from the larger cities. Buryatia in the far east is one of the regions with the highest number of casualties in the war. Russia’s indigenous peoples could make a difference to their country’s fate if they were to start saying no and show solidarity with each other. They are also colonised citizens of the empire that is so determined to subjugate its neighbours.

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Wildberries denies deaths in warehouse fire

A huge fire on Saturday destroyed a Wildberries warehouse in St. Petersburg that was built less than two years ago at a cost of three billion roubles and was not insured. Wildberries is Russia’s largest online retailer. Staff at the warehouse were searched as usual when they tried to evacuate the building, until security guards started to panic and let them out. Despite initial reports that three bodies had been found at the site and dozens of people were missing, the company insisted that everyone was accounted for. Yesterday police came to Wildberries’ Moscow headquarters as part of an investigation into the fire’s causes and fire safety measures.

Chemicals factory explodes, oil depot burns

An explosion caused severe damage at the Avangard factory in Shakhty, Rostov Oblast on Wednesday. Russia’s first polyester staple fibre plant opened in June last year as part of a drive towards “import substitution”. Meanwhile there was a fire this morning at an oil storage facility in Klintsy, Bryansk Oblast, which the region’s governor claimed was caused by a drone attack.

Pilot sentenced for “attempting to join Ukrainian army”

Khakassia’s supreme court has sentenced 61-year-old civilian pilot Igor Pokusin to eight years and one month in a maximum-security prison on a treason charge for allegedly planning to go to Ukraine and join the country’s army. The FSB insisted on its claims despite the fact that Pokusin, from the region’s capital Abakan, has prosthetic joints and a stent in his heart. His lawyers said that he is against the invasion but had no plans to fight. Previously Pokusin was found guilty of throwing paint on a “Z” banner and writing “Glory to Ukraine!” on a museum wall. He was then accused of plotting treason over phone conversations with relatives and friends in Ukraine.

Poet and regime critic Lev Rubinstein dies

Poet Lev Rubinstein has died at the age of 76 from injuries suffered after he was hit by a car in Moscow. Rubinstein was an outspoken critic of the Kremlin and the war in Ukraine. In the 1970s his work was published in the Soviet Union as samizdat and abroad. In 2017 he resigned from Russia’s PEN Centre, saying it was failing to defend persecuted writers.