In Bishkek, local police detained Russian activist Timofey Ilyushin, who wanted to hold a picket near the Russian embassy. According to The Insider's correspondent in Kyrgyzstan, he sent a notification to the police department and the Bishkek mayor's office. By a court decision in Bishkek, any actions in the city center, in particular, near state institutions and diplomatic missions, are prohibited.
The head of the human rights center Kylym Shamy, Gulshaiyr Abdirasulova, told The Insider that Ilyushin faces a criminal case: the security forces accuse him of inciting ethnic hatred due to publications on social networks.
According to Abdirasulova, the day before, human rights activists from Kylym Shamy advised Ilyushin on the issue of holding a rally in support of political prisoners. And on the morning of January 17, a Russian called the center and said that policemen were knocking at his apartment. A lawyer went to the place, but when he arrived, “Timofey was already being dragged out of the house.”
“There was also a man who introduced himself as a military prosecutor, which is surprising. <…> We are now trying to identify this person, because military prosecutors are not involved in such cases,” said Abdirasulova. She noted that the security forces threatened a lawyer who tried to help Ilyushin.
The human rights activist emphasized that, according to the available data, Ilyushin’s detention was not connected with the rally, but with publications in social networks, however, she did not rule out that the security forces became interested in the activist precisely after the notification of the rally was filed, and then they began to search for his publications on the Internet. According to Abdirasulova, the activist has a Telegram channel with anti-war statements.
She noted that human rights activists are trying to achieve the release of Ilyushin. “He will have to leave the country, but if there is a criminal case, it will not be good,” Abdirasulova added, noting that under the article on inciting ethnic hatred, the activist could face up to 8 years.
“This is not the first time we have. Prior to this, there was an attempt to initiate a case against a citizen of the Russian Federation, Ilya Shafranov was his name. These cases are initiated at the request of local residents,” the human rights activist said. “The police claim that local residents of Russian ethnicity are turning to law enforcement agencies with complaints about rallies and anti-war slogans that this affects them and incites some discord,” Abdirasulova added.
The head of Kylym Shamy also said that since March 2022, the Bishkek courts have adopted a series of decisions to ban rallies in certain places: near the government building, city hall and other state bodies. “These bans are more related to anti-war rallies in Kyrgyzstan in support of Ukraine,” Abdirasulova said. In fact, actions can only be held in one place – in the Gorsky Square.
According to the human rights activist, police officers demanded that she delete the post about Ilyushin's detention, which she published on her Facebook page, threatening her that otherwise the activist would not be released. The post has now been deleted.
Ilyushin left Russia in June. On December 31, he posted on Facebook, in which he wrote that he had been detained “more than five times” over the past year, and that he could not celebrate any holidays, “while there is a war in Ukraine, children, men, women are being killed. Houses, kindergartens, schools are being destroyed.”
Ilyushin also wrote that on New Year's Eve, the police searched the Moscow apartment where he was registered. According to the activist, the police wringed his grandmother’s hands and threatened her with an article about “discrediting the army” for her grandson’s posts on social networks.