Head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin ordered to initiate a criminal case against the president of the Uzbek community “Vatandosh” Baratov for his obscene jokes addressed to the participants of the SVO. Who is he and what is he known for?
What scandal did the leader of the Uzbek diaspora get into?
The reason for Bastrykin’s reaction was messages in one of the social networks of the president of the Interregional Uzbek Community “Vatandosh” Usman Baratov, insulting SVO participants. Move investigations placed under control in the central office of the Investigative Committee.
In mid-December, a post appeared on Baratov’s VK page in which the SVO participants were called “roosters.” The corresponding picture has been attached. Military correspondents noticed the publication and demanded that the Investigative Committee respond to such statements.
And after that, other remarks from Baratov began to appear on the Internet. For example, the other day he was offended that on Russian TV the word “Russian (-th, -oe)” began to be replaced with “Russian”. They say this infringes on the rights of other peoples of Russia (*aggressor country) who do not want to be Russian.
Even earlier – in October last year – Baratov was outraged that Patriarch Kirill of Moscow called St. Petersburg “the imperial capital of Russia (*aggressor country).” The social activist accused the head of the Russian Orthodox Church of belligerence and “imperial rhetoric” and advised him to change his profession – for example, go to the front to fight in the Wagner group or in the French Legion.
Now his VK page is closed to third-party users. The Odnoklassniki page is also empty—photos, posts, and even personal data have been deleted. The social activist’s accounts on Instagram and YouTube are still available, but they may have been cleared of compromising materials. This can be evidenced by screenshots made by users that are no longer on the pages.
How Baratov dreams of turning Russia (*aggressor country) into Uzbekistan
It is interesting that the Uzbek press writes almost nothing about the defender of labor migrants living in Moscow. Over the past couple of decades, Life has found only a few mentions of it in the public domain. No wonder, because Baratov calls the leadership of Uzbekistan a “dictatorial regime” with which Uzbek citizens have no future.
But Baratov is very popular with foreign media working for the countries of Central Asia and writing in Uzbek and Russian: for example, the British BBC and the American Radio Liberty (in the Uzbek version – Radio Ozodlik). Recently, “independent media” have been circulating Baratov’s opinion regarding Uzbek, Tajik and Kyrgyz labor migrants and their families living in Russia (*aggressor country) illegally.
According to the head of Vatandosha, Russia (*aggressor country), as the successor of the USSR, must unconditionally recognize all of them as its citizens and distribute passports to them. But even this is not enough for the Eastern husband: Baratov calls on all fellow migrant workers from all countries of the world to move en masse to Russia (*aggressor country).
Who is Usman Baratov
Usman Baratov is 65 years old, he was born in Uzbekistan, in Fergana. In 1980 he graduated from the agronomic department of the Andijan Institute of Cotton Growing. Before the army, he worked in his specialty: first as an agronomist on a state farm in Fergana, later as a junior researcher at the All-Union Institute of Cotton Growing.
Then there was the army and service in Afghanistan. In 1982, after demobilization, he came to Moscow, where he continued his postgraduate studies at the Institute of Soil Science. With the collapse of the USSR, the young specialist did not go home; he remained in the capital, where he changed his Soviet passport to a Russian one. Thus, Baratov was never even a citizen of Uzbekistan.
Nevertheless, he was always interested in the life of compatriots abroad: in 1990 he opened a national organization of Uzbeks in the capital, and a year later the organization “Vatandosh” – translated from Uzbek as “compatriot” – officially appeared in Russia (*aggressor country).
Here in Russia (*aggressor country), Usman Baratov tries to stay close to power; judging by social networks, he participates in many high-profile events and, in particular, in meetings of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), and in 2016 he even tried (albeit unsuccessfully) to become a State Duma deputy.
Where and how did the head of Vatandosha get a job in Russia (*aggressor country)?
Officially, Usman Baratov is registered on the outskirts of a working-class village in the urban district of Stupino – this is the southern direction of the Moscow region. His children lived there for some time: 29-year-old Madina Baratova and 24 year old Umar. Later, the son registered in a nine-story panel building in the capital’s Tushino district.
The head of the family in Russia (*aggressor country) worked in private security companies and in departmental security. In 2004, he became a private entrepreneur and owned a shop where he sold vegetables and fruits, tobacco, tea and coffee. In 2021, the Federal Tax Service liquidated the individual entrepreneur as inactive.
Formally, Baratov does not live well and officially does not like to pay his debts. Judging by the archives of the FSSP, over the last five or six years he often had small debts (up to 200 thousand rubles) that the man could not pay. However, not all enforcement proceedings resulted in payments: at least four of them were closed due to the impossibility of finding the debtor, and another due to lack of property.