Russia jails six protesters after Bashkortostan unrest
MOSCOW: Russia has handed short-term jail sentences to six protesters who had rallied against the imprisonment of a prominent local activist earlier this week, a regional court announced Thursday.
Protesters and riot police clashed in two days of protests in a small town in Russia’s central Bashkortostan in a rare show of public dissent amid Moscow’s intense crackdown of regime critics.
A court in the regional capital of Ufa earlier handed six people arrested in protests on Jan 15 jail sentences of between 10-13 days for organising an unsanctioned rally, the court said in a social media post.
Regional authorities have pledged a swift response to the rare protests, which saw thousands take to the streets of Baymak, a small town 1,400 kilometres east of Moscow, in temperatures of -20 degrees Celsius.
Investigators have opened criminal cases on the grounds of “mass rioting” and assaulting police officers – charges which carry maximum penalties of up to 15 years.
Police used tear gas to disperse a second day of demonstrations on Wednesday after clashes outside a courtroom where local activist Fail Alsynov was sentenced to four years in prison for “inciting hatred.”
Alsynov is a prominent local environmental activist and campaigner for the protection of the Bashkir language and culture.
He has denied the accusations against him, saying the charges – of allegedly making a racist statement about people from Central Asia and the Caucasus – are based on a mistranslation of a speech he gave in Bashkir.