10,000 Protestors Clash With Police in Russia Over the Jailing of an Anti-War Activist
Thousands stormed the streets in Russia on Wednesday.
Jan. 17 2024, Published 4:00 p.m. ET
The jailing of an anti-war activist in Russia resulted in thousands of citizens taking to the streets and clashing with police in a brutal display of resistance, RadarOnline.com has learned.
An estimated 10,000 Russian citizens protested on Wednesday in support of activist Fail Alsynov, who was sentenced to four years behind bars for "inciting hatred."
Protesters took to the streets in Baymak on Wednesday in outrage of the jailing of an anti-war activist.
Demonstrators clashed with police in the small town of Baymak, Bashkortostan, which sits near the Ural mountains and the Kazakhstan border.
Police unloaded cans of tear gas on the crowd, who were seen in footage throwing snowballs and ice at officers. Over 300 special forces were called in to control the protesters, including the Russian National Guard.
Russian police reportedly used tear gas against the crowd armed with snowballs and ice.
"They beat the men mercilessly," one witness recalled of the mayhem, according to the Daily Mail. "They beat them on the head and back with batons. They say that someone's eye was knocked out."
When paddy wagons arrived to detain demonstrators, the crowd reportedly encircled the vehicles and hurled threats at the officers warning of violence against them if they hurt the detainees.
The unruly scene was the largest event of civil unrest since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago in February 2022.
The sentencing of the activist that sparked the demonstration was held behind closed doors. Alsynov was accused of insulting people of Central Asia and the Caucasus in a speech in the Bashkir language. However, the activist insisted that the speech was mistranslated.
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Putin's former speechwriter warned, 'This is how the Soviet Union collapsed.'
In addition to the allegedly mistranslated speech, Alsynov has also been publicly critical of the war in Ukraine. The activist was reportedly fined last year for speaking out against Putin's war on social media.
In his post, Alsynov called the mobilization of Russian troops to send to the Ukrainian front lines a "genocide of the Bashkir people."
Putin's former speech writer, Abbas Gallyamov, warned of the civil unrest, "This is how the Soviet Union collapsed."
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"This does not mean that the regime there has been overthrown right now, but it does mean that when suppressing discontent, the authorities will have to act very harshly, and this, in turn, means that many painful grievances will be stored in the treasury of the people's memory," Gallyamov said.
"This does not mean that the regime there has been overthrown right now, but it does mean that when suppressing discontent, the authorities will have to act very harshly, and this, in turn, means that many painful grievances will be stored in the treasury of the people's memory," Putin's former speechwriter continued.
"This is how the Soviet Union collapsed."
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