"Rising Protests in Russia's Bashkortostan Spark Crackdown Concerns"

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Russia's Bashkortostan to protest the imprisonment of activist Fayil Alsynov, who was sentenced to four years in prison on charges of "inciting interethnic hatred," which he denies. The protests were met with a heavy police presence, resulting in the arrest of several participants. Additionally, the authorities have launched criminal cases and warned of severe penalties for those involved in earlier protests. Alsynov has been an activist for over 15 years, advocating for the rights of the indigenous Bashkir people, and maintains that his words were mistranslated from his native language of Bashkir into Russian.