The Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow sent the head of the Uzbek diaspora “Vatandosh” Usman Baratov to a pre-trial detention center on charges of extremism. This was reported by the press service of the capital's courts.
Baratov was charged with inciting hatred or enmity by an organized group (clause “c” of part 2 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code), the press service noted. Under this article, he faces up to six years in prison.
The initiation of a case against Baratov became known the day before. According to investigators, in December 2023, the head of the diaspora and “other persons” made a post that humiliates the dignity of Russian citizens, “including participants in a special military operation.” The press release from the Investigative Committee said that the head of the department, Alexander Bastrykin, was asked to “respond” to the “mocking” post by “military correspondents.”
We are talking about Baratov’s publication in Odnoklassniki: he illustrated the news about rising egg prices in Russia with a picture of chickens and the text “Fuck you with butter, not eggs! Bring back the roosters from the front.»
Now, due to privacy settings, Baratov’s posts on Odnoklassniki are available only to his friends.
After Bastrykin’s order to initiate a case against Baratov, State Duma Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy wrote that the communities and diasporas are “nothing more than legalized mafia structures” and called for “an end to interethnic liberalism.”