A 71-year-old local historian from Tatarstan was sent to a penal colony over an anti-war post and a video address by the Freedom of Russia Legion

A 71-year-old local historian from Tatarstan was sent to a penal colony over an anti-war post and a video address by the Freedom of Russia Legion

The court sentenced Fazyl Valiakhmetov to six years in a penal colony on charges of discrediting the army and justifying terrorism. OVD-Info was told this by his relatives.

He was also banned from administering websites for three and a half years.

The local historian was accused of discrediting the army because of a post on VKontakte in the Tatar language in which he condemned the war.

"Globalization is taking place on planet Earth, borders are practically being erased (for example, in Europe). Live where you want, buy land, a house, start your own business, etc. After all, for this there is no need to seize any country, create new borders, destroying cities, killing tens of thousands of people. That means ordinary people do not need this. This separate grief apparently is necessary only for ‘politicians’ in order to show themselves off, boast that they have done some deed, using the basest human instincts of scoundrels, and to remain in power as before, playing with them,” the post said.

The charge of justifying terrorism was brought against Valiakhmetov because he published a video address by the Freedom of Russia Legion to Russians.

🟠 The local historian has been in pretrial detention since December 2024 despite having stage 3 hypertension. This illness prevents detention in custody.

🟠 Initially, the pensioner was accused of discrediting the army because of five posts. In one of them he wrote: "Why do people in wars kill others or die themselves? Is there not enough food? No clothes? Not enough land? Do they not want to raise and bring up children? Do they not want to live for pleasure in retirement? Or maybe there just are not enough brains in their heads."

🟠 Valiakhmetov is a veteran of the Tatar national movement. In 1991, he took part in a hunger strike for Tatarstan's sovereignty. For more than ten years he was a correspondent for the newspaper "Voice of Bugulma," and in 2004 he opened the museum-library of the repressed Tatar public figure Hadi Atlasi.

💌 You can support Fazyl Valiakhmetov by sending him a letter through our service "Vestochka".

🛟 Subscribe to OVD-Info. We explain what to do if you or your loved ones come under pressure from the authorities.

Fazyl Valiakhmetov / Photo: Mediazona