August 21, 2026

Repressive Medicine


Repressive Medicine
Strange, but against Putin: Garbyshev, in earlier days. The Russian Life files

According to Yakutia.info, the local Supreme Court has upheld the order for opposition activist Alexander Gabyshev to undergo compulsory treatment, rejecting an appeal.

Gabyshev is a native of Yakutia, where shamanism is widespread among indigenous peoples. He calls himself a “shaman-warrior.” In the spring of 2019, the flamboyant opposition figure set out on a trek to Moscow to perform a “ritual to expel Putin.”

Gabyshev carried his belongings on a cart and spent nights in a yurt, gaining notoriety along the way. Some media wrote that he was going to call out Putin to a fight, others that ​​he was planning to light a bonfire on Red Square. According to Yakut traditions, he would feed the fire with mare's milk and horsehair, beat a leather drum, and offer a prayer, after which Putin would come to his senses and resign of his own accord. Gabyshev believed that if the ritual were banned, millions of people would rise up and demand the president’s resignation.

On the journey, people often approached Gabyshev and struck up conversations. Some joined his trek, some gave money, and others filmed videos that garnered over a million views. A few weeks later, on the border between Buryatia and the Irkutsk Region, the rebel-shaman was detained and forcibly returned to Yakutia. A criminal case was filed against him on charges of extremism. He was placed under house arrest; detained again after escaping; beaten; and subjected to a show trial during which he was declared mentally incompetent.

In January 2021, Gabyshev was sent to a medical facility for “compulsory treatment." He was transferred from hospital to hospital in violation of medical standards. During court hearings, he said he felt unwell, complained of constant weakness, dizziness, and drowsiness, and reported an increase in the number of unidentified medications he was being forced to take. Amnesty International has recognized Gabyshev as a prisoner of conscience. Over the past five years, two books, a documentary film, and a play have been produced about him, but efforts to secure his release have been unsuccessful.

On August 13, it became known that yet another attempt had failed. 

“The judge and the prosecutor aren’t at all bothered by the fact that Alexander has been 'undergoing treatment' for nearly six years,” wrote attorney Alexey Pryanishnikov on his Telegram channel, “Under similar articles of the Russian Criminal Code, people are released from prison after four years, but in this case, they’ve been 'treating' him to no avail – after all, you can’t cure something that doesn’t exist.”


 

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