Around 60 individuals from Yakutsk took to the streets on January 24 after a fellow resident was killed in a mass brawl. According to the police, a conflict arose between a 23-year-old man from the Namsky District and a native of Tajikistan. The Yakut discovered the offender's address on social networks and, accompanied by friends, confronted him. The encounter escalated into a fight, resulting in three people being wounded with a knife, one of whom later died in a hospital.
During the rally, the locals demanded accountability for those responsible for the murder. The protesters' documents were checked, leading to the detention of some by the police. Dozens of law enforcement officers were deployed to Yakutsk's squares in advance, along with police vans.
The local branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has urged residents 'not to succumb to provocations' and refrain from participating in unauthorized rallies. Republic head Aysen Nikolayev asserted that 'such people should not be a part of our society.' He pledged to investigate the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of Russian citizenship by the Tajikistan native and accused 'provokers, including those based abroad,' of orchestrating the protests.
Following the disturbances, a suspect in the murder was apprehended under a court order.
In response to the protests in Yakutia, authorities in the neighboring Zabaykalye region decided to engage in meetings with locals to prevent demonstrations akin to those recently observed in Dagestan, Bashkortostan, and Yakutia. These meetings will be titled 'Important Conversation' and will be held in all districts of Zabaykalsky Krai, announced Governor Alexander Osipov. He characterized the events in Yakutia as 'thwarting the attempt of foreign agents to incite a mass conflict based on national grounds.'
"Our enemy, the collective West, is cunning and devoid of principles. They don't care about proper fight methods when they're losing a physical war, which is why they resort to the information one," wrote Osipov.
