Alexandr Gabyshev, a shaman from a remote region of Russia, the Republic of Yakutia. The indigenous people of Yakutia are the Yakuts (Sakha). About 478,000 Yakuts live in Russia today.

Shaman Alexandr Gabyshev has gained the greatest notoriety in Russia and in many countries of the world in the spring of 2019 when he set off on a march from his native Yakutsk to Moscow, claiming that he sought to exorcise a demon from the Kremlin, the one dwelling in the incumbent Russian president Vladimir Putin.

As he made his way through the Far Eastern Russian regions Yakutia, Buryatia, and the Zabaykalye Territory, he was joined by like-minded people, with whom he walked about 3,000 kilometers. During his journey, Gabyshev gave many interviews, in which he criticized President Putin for the authoritarian regime, the elimination of political competition, the electoral system, the suppression of the freedoms of citizens, the infringement of their rights, and the destruction of independent judiciary. Gabyshev called for a change of power, but at the same time his speeches were always peaceful, he pointed out the inadmissibility of physical violence and revenge on political opponents. On the way, Gabyshev enjoyed rising popularity with local residents, spontaneous rallies were gathering in cities and towns to express their support – in Chita, the capital of the Chita region, and Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Republic of Buryatia. Starting in June 2019, Gabyshev attracted the attention of the FSB. FSB operatives established surveillance of Shaman and his group.

On 19 September 2019, after one of the rallies in the Republic of Buryatia, Alexander Gabyshev was detained by law enforcement officers, who stormed the tent camp of Gabyshev's group. He was detained and flown to Yakutsk. For criticizing Putin, the FSB launched a criminal case against Gabyshev for allegedly extremist statements (this type of criminal case is widely used by the Russian authorities in the fight against their critics). Threatened by FSB officers to be taken in custody in a pre-trial detention center, Gabyshev gave his written consent to the hospitalization in the Yakut Republican Psychoneurological Center. We, the defenders of Gabyshev, managed to arrive at the hospital on time and insist on the cancellation of the consent. Alexander was released.

Under the criminal case investigation, the FSB, with the help of psychiatrists from the Yakut psychiatric hospital, conducted a psychiatric examination, according to the results of which Gabyshev was recognized as subject to treatment in a psychiatric hospital. This was justified by the fact that Gabyshev expresses "crazy ideas of reformism" in the field of public administration and calls himself a shaman, talking about shamanic rituals. At the same time, the defense attracted a group of reputable independent psychiatrists collaborating with the World Psychiatric Association. They disapproved the conclusions of state psychiatric experts that Gabyshev had a mental illness that required treatment in a psychiatric hospital.

January 2021 Gabyshev announced the resumption of the campaign to Moscow in the spring.

On January 27, 2021, by special order of the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Yakutia, 55 police officers and a special unit of the National Guard surrounded two neighborhood areas adjacent to the house of Gabyshev, and stormed his house with firearms. During the storm, Gabyshev was severely beaten and taken to the Yakut psychiatric hospital against his will. Despite the fact that Gabyshev was beaten, a criminal case was initiated against him for the use of violence against the officers of a special unit of the National Guard. At the same time, Gabyshev did not act violently, which is confirmed by the expertise, attached to the criminal case, however the court declared him insane and sent him for compulsory treatment in a prison-type psychiatric hospital for an indefinite period. Gabyshev is still there. At the same time, the location of the hospital (the city of Ussuriysk, Primorsky Krai, in the Far East of Russia, a nine-hour flight by plane from Moscow) was chosen in such a way to create financial difficulties for Gabyshev's defense team and limit the spread of information about his case. The Gabyshev case, as before, is closely monitored by the FSB. Thus, according to the doctors of the psychiatric hospital in Ussuriysk, the FSB officers insisted on changing the conclusions of the commission of psychiatrists on the possibility of transferring Gabyshev to a civilian hospital in his native Yakutsk. This led to an extension of his treatment by at least one year.

The persecution of Alexander Gabyshev attracted the attention of major world media and international human rights organizations. Thus, Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience and initiated a campaign in his support and an appeal to the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples with a request to take up the case.

The Alexander Gabyshev case marked the resumption in Russia of the use of psychiatric services for political purposes like in the Soviet Union.

This case is one of the indicators of the attitude of the Russian authorities towards religions that are not official and are not practiced by the majority of the population. Investigators of the FSB, the Investigative Committee of Russia, prosecutors, judges, and psychiatrists, asking Alexander Gabyshev questions about his worldview, ideas, and rituals of shamanism, always did it with undisguised mockery and laughed at him. Investigators and judges repeatedly asked Gabyshev the question: "You are a Christian. What for shamanism?"

Psychiatrists in the Yakut psychiatric hospital and judges in the courts, being also Yakuts, are all well aware that the indigenous inhabitants of Yakutia are dual faith, practicing both Christianity and the cult of Aiyy. In addition, we presented to the court Gabyshev's diploma of higher education and his graduation work at the Faculty of History of the Yakutsk University studied was on the subject "The Cult of Aiyy." However, this did not prevent them from regarding the ideas of shamanism expressed by Gabyshev as a mental deviation, and from recognizing him as insane. This is a sign of the dismissive attitude of the Russian authorities towards the so-called "minor religions" that do not show loyalty to the political regime.