Multiple people arrested in Russia’s Bashkortostan as protests supporting jailed activist spread to regional capital

Residents of Ufa, the capital of Russia’s Republic of Bashkortostan, staged a protest on Friday in support of Fail Alsynov, a prominent local activist who was sentenced to four years in prison on charges of “inciting ethnic hatred” earlier this week, independent Russian media reported.

The Telegram channels SOTAvision and RusNews estimated that at least 2,000 people joined the demonstration. To complicate the authorities’ efforts to quell the protest, attendees did round dances, avoided clustering in a single area, and walked from side to side to stay in motion. When questioned by police, the protesters said they had come to look at the city’s monument to Bashkortostan’s national hero, Salawat Yulaev.

Soon after the protest began, riot officers arrived at the scene and police began detaining people. Arrestees included a woman with a sign that read “kara khalyk,” a man carrying the flag of Bashkortostan, and two people who tried to wrest the flag carrier back from the police. When protesters blocked the road so the police couldn’t drive away with the arrestees, riot police forced them out of the way.

The protest was Bashkortostan’s third one in support of Fail Alsynov in the last five days. On January 17, an estimated 3,000 people gathered in the town of Baymak for Fail Alsynov’s sentencing hearing. The demonstration ended in violent clashes with police that led the authorities to open a criminal case over “mass rioting.”