A court in the Russian Far East has rejected a request to move anti-Putin shaman Alexander Gabyshev from a high-security psychiatric facility to a general hospital for the third time in two years, as reported by his lawyer on Friday.
The Ussuriysky District Court, located in the Primorye region, reached this decision following the reversal of an earlier ruling by a higher court in February, which had granted the initial transfer request made in December, according to attorney Alexei Pryanishnikov.
Gabyshev, who is 56 years old, was arrested in 2019 after embarking on a journey on foot from his home in the Sakha (Yakutia) region to Moscow with the intention of “exorcizing” President Vladimir Putin.
For the majority of the past six years, he has been confined to psychiatric hospitals where, according to Pryanishnikov, he has been subjected to dangerous treatments.
Pryanishnikov has previously stated that independent medical experts have confirmed Gabyshev’s mental stability and have recommended his transfer, but their advice has been disregarded by the judiciary.
The Ussuriysk court denied transfer requests for Gabyshev in both December 2023 and May 2024.
Amnesty International and the Russian human rights organization Memorial both classify Gabyshev as a political prisoner, with Amnesty stating that he has become an enemy of the state simply for expressing his opposition to Putin.
The practice of confining political dissidents to psychiatric institutions, known as punitive psychiatry, was prevalent during the Soviet era. Until the late 1980s, critics could be diagnosed with “sluggish schizophrenia” or various forms of paranoia and incarcerated in such facilities.
