In Siberia’s Altai Republic a new wave of repression targeted some 150 believers of the large group founded in Kazakhstan.
by Massimo Introvigne
![FSB agents raid the home of an Allya Ayat believer in Altai Republic. Source: Telegram.](https://bitterwinter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/FSB-agents-.jpeg)
![FSB agents raid the home of an Allya Ayat believer in Altai Republic. Source: Telegram.](https://bitterwinter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/FSB-agents-.jpeg)
In the past month of January, the Russian federal security service FSB raided places of gathering and private homes of members of the esoteric movement Allya Ayat in the Altai Republic, which is located in Western Siberia and shares a border with Kazakhstan. The large crackdown operation led to the identification of some 150 members of Allya Ayat and to the seizure of literature, USB keys, and computers.
Several devotees were indicted under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 (“Organization of the activities of a public or religious association or other organization in respect of which the court has made a decision on liquidation or prohibition of activities that has entered into legal force in connection with the implementation of extremist activities”).The Samara Regional Court declared Allya Ayat “extremist” in 2019 and its activities are banned in Russia.
![“Extremist” Allya Ayat literature seized by the FSB. Source: Telegram.](https://bitterwinter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Extremist.jpeg)
![“Extremist” Allya Ayat literature seized by the FSB. Source: Telegram.](https://bitterwinter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Extremist.jpeg)
In the same days, the Leninsky District Court in Orenburg in the Orenburg Oblast, which is far away from the Altai Republic but is also close to the Kazakh border, refused to sentence the local leader of Allya Ayat, a 56-year-old woman, since the statute of limitation had expired and the prosecutor had made several procedural mistakes. However, the court did not close the case but sent it back to the prosecutor so that the charges can be reformulated.
Allya Ayat may well be the largest esoteric movement operating in the post-Soviet sphere. It was founded in Kazakhstan in 1990 by an ethnic Uyghur called Farhat Mukhamedovich Abdullayev (1937–2007), who claimed he had received a revelation from Archangel Gabriel, and by his wife, Nina Kasimova (1940–2017). It teaches members to attune themselves to the universal energy through the recitation of a mantra in the Uyghur language. Kazakh authorities accused the movement of claiming that the mantra would heal most illnesses and consulting doctors was not necessary. They banned Allya Ayat in 2009. However, the group continued to grow, recruiting more than 10,000 followers in Central Asia and Russia, with a presence also in Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, and Germany.
The independent SOVA Center for Information and Analysis characterized the “liquidation” decisions and the inclusion of Allya Ayat in the official list of Russian banned “extremist” groups as “unlawful.” While the SOVA Center agreed that instances where the movement reportedly discouraged members to seek necessary medical treatment may be legitimately investigated and lead to sanctions, it concluded that the literature and teachings of the group are not “extremist” even by the broad standards of Russian law.