• Tweeter

  • republish

Alexander Gabychev left on foot last spring from Yakutsk, 5000 kilometers from Moscow (image for illustration). Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

In Russia, it is a story hardly credible: a Siberian shaman who wanted to exorcise Vladimir Putin, Alexander Gabychev, left on foot last spring of Yakutsk 5,000 kilometers from Moscow. He wanted to join the Russian capital to organize a ceremony of "banishment" of the Russian president. Arrested Thursday, September 19 on the shores of Lake Baikal he was interned in a psychiatric hospital.

With our correspondent in Moscow, Daniel Vallot

He was dragging his handcart, on the dirt roads, and along the Russian national roads. At the rate of 20 kilometers a day, Alexander Gabychev hoped to arrive in Moscow in 2021.

But his journey started last spring, to exorcise Vladimir Putin, did not fail to attract the attention of the authorities. As well as his statements on the "demonic" character of the Russian president.

While camping with several of his disciples near Lake Baikal, the shaman was finally arrested in the middle of the night by the police and then interned in a mental hospital. According to the authorities of Yakutia, his region of origin, it is a matter of conducting a simple expertise - in order to possibly provide medical assistance.

But many voices in Russia are indignant about the treatment of the shaman, a treatment worthy of the Soviet era, and rebels the opponent Alexei Navalny. For its part the NGO Amnesty International denounces a "grotesque" reaction of the Russian authorities, and calls for the immediate release of the Siberian shaman.