Head of Uzbek community in Russia arrested

The Stupino City Court in the Moscow Region found Usman Baratov, the leader of the Uzbek community, guilty of inciting hatred and enmity (Part 2 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and sentenced him to four years in a general regime colony, as reported by "Sotavision."

Baratov described the sentence as "a disgrace to Russian justice."

"This shows that the court is not an independent judicial branch but a servant of the executive power. The court is not a separate branch of government; it is a servant," he said.

The criminal case against Baratov was initiated in January 2024. According to the investigation, in December 2023, Baratov and "other individuals" published a post on social networks that "degraded the dignity of citizens of the Russian Federation, including participants in military operations." This refers to Baratov's post on Odnoklassniki, where he shared news about rising egg prices with a photo of chickens and the caption, "May you have butter, not eggs!" and "Bring roosters from the front."

Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, reported that Russian "military correspondents" had complained about Baratov’s post. Baratov expressed regret that his assistant did not remove the "satirical photo of chickens" from the social network for a month, despite its alleged connection to the accusations against him related to the "special military operation."