Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 13 – Aleksandr Gabyshev,
the shaman from Sakha who attracted international attention when he began his
march toward Moscow last year to exorcise Vladimir Putin whom he describes as “a
demon” before he was forcibly returned to his home republic, now says he will
resume his march soon, despite court orders not to leave home.
In a YouTube clip addressed to his
followers, Gabyshev says that he will ignore the court orders because “I am under
only the law of God. He said I was to go in March and that means I will go in
that month.” He was not more specific (mnews.world/ru/yakutskij-shaman-aleksandr-gabyshev-obyavil-o-novom-pohode-v-moskvu/
and svoboda.org/a/30374503.html).
If he leaves home in March, it will
be exactly a year after he first announced plans to exorcise Putin from Russia
and began his march on Moscow. Over the next six months, he covered some 3,000
kilometers before being detained by the FSB and forcibly returned to Yakutsk.
There he was confined in a psychiatric
hospital and judged legally incompetent. The shaman was then charged with calls
for extremist activity but released on his own recognizance. That did not
prevent him from resuming his march in December 2019. But he was detained almost
immediately by the FSB.
Amnesty International has declared
him a prisoner of conscience, but both the shamanistic community in Russia and
Russians more generally remain deeply divided on his status, with some viewing
him as a genuine shaman who is acting for God and others dismissing him as a
publicity hound.
For background on the case, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/10/yakutsk-shaman-announces-plans-for-new.html,
windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/10/for-shaman-for-stalin-mixed-messages.html,
windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/10/for-shaman-yakutsk-residents-protest.html,
windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/09/like-rasputins-shamans-appearance-means.html,
windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/08/shamans-face-off-over-putin-in-buryatia.html,
windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/07/will-shaman-from-sakha-do-what-russian.html,
windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/07/anti-putin-shaman-far-more-important.html
and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/07/putin-is-demon-and-i-must-exorcise-him.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment