The Baza telegram channel has published a video, the footage of which allegedly depicts a shootout between police and illegal jade miners in Buryatia.
The video was filmed on a camera attached to the helmet of a man who says he is from the police. The man demands that the people he shoots, who are returning fire, surrender and remain where they are. In the middle of the video, a man of Asian appearance in camouflage and on a horse appears, who, in response to a demand to surrender, says: “Go to Ukraine, you can shoot there.”
When the author of the video and the alleged security forces approach the ATV with an unknown load, they are surrounded by unarmed men, one of whom is wounded at the end.
According to Baza, the shootout took place on the evening of July 26 in the area of the Ospinsky field. According to the Telegram channel, then 40 people fired at and threw stones at the police officers who came to detain them for illegal mining of jade.
The Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Buryatia reported that the security forces then detained 30 men who «provided active resistance to police officers, threw stones and fired several shots at law enforcement officers.» They seized 8 ATVs and 80 kilograms of jade.
During the arrest, one of the miners was wounded in the thigh from a firearm, another received a head injury. According to the police, 24 out of 30 people were issued protocols of disobedience to the security forces (Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), they were assigned from 5 to 10 days of arrest. Five more became defendants in a criminal case on an attack on law enforcers (Part 2 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code).
The press release of the Ministry of Internal Affairs also said that all men were going to be held administratively liable under articles on unauthorized extraction of jade (Article 7.5 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) and violation of fire safety rules in forests (Article 8.32 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). It is not known what punishment they were given under these protocols.