Take Action
Ярҙам ит
Under an information blockade, what people outside Russia do — and don’t do — changes what happens inside it. Five concrete ways to help:
Amplify the cases
Follow the office on Telegram and share the prisoner cases and monitoring updates. A case the world is watching is harder to bury.
Sign the petition
Add your name to the campaign to protect Kushtau — the sacred mountain near Sterlitamak that the Baymak case grew out of.
Write to officials
A short letter to the people who can raise these cases — your foreign ministry, your elected representative, or the UN Special Procedures. Copy our template.
Support the organisations
Memorial keeps the list of Russia’s political prisoners; Amnesty International campaigns for prisoners of conscience. Both need support.
Offer your skills
Lawyers, Russian–Bashkir–English translators, researchers and monitors are all needed. Message the bot and say what you can do.
Letter kit
Two routes. Anyone can write to their own government. Organisations and people with first‑hand information can also submit to the United Nations.
To your government
Send this to your country’s foreign ministry or your elected representative. Adjust the bracketed parts.
Subject: Human rights of the Bashkir people in Russia
Dear [name / title],
I am writing as [your constituent / a citizen concerned about human
rights in Russia]. Since 2020 the authorities have dismantled the
Bashkir national movement and banned its largest organisation as
"extremist". After the mass protests in Baymak in January 2024,
dozens of politically motivated prosecutions were opened; defendants
report torture and denial of legal counsel.
I ask [the government / you] to:
1. Raise these cases, by name, in contacts with Russia and at the
UN Human Rights Council;
2. Support renewal of the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on
the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation;
3. Apply targeted sanctions on the officials responsible for these
prosecutions and for torture.
The Ombudsperson for Bashkir Peoples' Rights holds documented case
files and can provide details: bashkortrights.com
Yours sincerely,
[name], [city, country]
To the United Nations
If you or your organisation has first‑hand information about a case, submit a one‑page summary — where, when, who — through the OHCHR Special Procedures portal at complaints.ohchr.org, or by email to urgent-action@ohchr.org. The mandates most relevant here: the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation; on the rights of indigenous peoples; on human rights defenders; on torture; and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.