Shaman Gabyshev's attempts to walk to Moscow
In March 2019 Alexander Gabyshev set off on foot from Yakutia to the Russian capital to "drive out Putin" and "restore justice". In September — after six months and 3,000 kilometres of travel — Gabyshev was arrested; the Federal Security Service opened a case on public calls to extremism, but the shaman was not charged. He was placed in a psychoneurological dispensary and declared insane, but was later released.
In December 2019 shaman Gabyshev set off for Moscow again, but the man was detained again. The police accused him of disobedience, and the court fined him 1,000 roubles for a security officer's torn jacket. The Investigative Committee then began a check on whether to open a criminal case. In mid-July 2020 Gabyshev was discharged from the Yakut Republican Psychiatric Dispensary, where he had been undergoing compulsory treatment since mid-May.
At the beginning of 2021 Gabyshev announced a new "march on Moscow" in March, but at the end of January he was detained in the house of his relatives, where he was living. In mid-March an examination declared the man insane.
The security forces considered the possibility of killing shaman Alexander Gabyshev, who had repeatedly tried to walk to Moscow to "drive out" Russian President Vladimir Putin, during his detention. This was stated by a Rosgvardia platoon commander at a hearing of the city court in Yakutsk on the case of the shaman's compulsory treatment, where he had been summoned as a prosecution witness. "We knew that Gabyshev was gifted and a public figure, so we decided not to kill him," the online outlet Sibir.Realii quoted the security officer as saying on Friday, 7 May, citing unnamed sources familiar with the content of the hearing.
