On October 6, Rosfinmonitoring included the public association "Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk People" in its list of terrorists and extremists. Earlier, the Supreme Court of Kalmykia recognized the Congress as an extremist organization and banned its activities on the territory of the Russian Federation.
The socio-political association "Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk People" was founded in September 2015 as an informal body coordinating people's congresses that were held in Elista every two years, until the police detained some of the deputies in 2021.
In February 2022, the leadership of the Congress condemned the invasion of Russian armed forces into Ukraine and called on Kalmyks not to participate in the war. In October 2022, the Congress published a declaration "On the state independence of the Republic of Kalmykia." It declared the need for "the complete liberation of the Oirat-Kalmyk people from colonial dependence on Russia." The Congress stated that it would seek the secession of Kalmykia from the Russian Federation, the proclamation and creation of a sovereign independent state.
On June 2, 2023, the Elista City Court recognized the declaration as extremist material. The document was included in the Federal List under number 5361. "It should be noted that the document does not say anything about the methods of achieving independence, that is, there are no calls for violent separatism in it," experts from the Sova Information and Analytical Center note. "We consider the ban on the declaration to be unlawful. From our point of view, restrictions are appropriate only with respect to calls for violent separatism, while peaceful discussions about the territorial status of certain regions should not be restricted."
On August 23, 2023, the Supreme Court of Kalmykia in Elista considered the claim of the republic's prosecutor to recognize the Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk People as an extremist organization and ban its activities on the territory of Russia. The statement of claim stated that the Congress "carries out extremist activities, issues its own legal acts, creates bodies that replace judicial bodies and state authorities. The goals of the association's activities are the secession of the Republic of Kalmykia from the Russian Federation, the proclamation and creation of an independent state."
The court took into account not only the "calls to violate the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation" contained in the declaration, but also the "dissemination, under the guise of reliable reports, of knowingly false information containing data on the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation." This information was distributed on Telegram on the channels "Volny Ulus" and "League of Free Nations" and was recognized as extremist, as was the content of the video "Scenario: The Collapse of Russia//The Secession of Kalmykia and Buryatia" with fragments of an interview with the Deputy Chairman of the Congress Vladimir Dovdanov, posted on YouTube on the page of the channel "Alchemy of the Soul." As a result, the Supreme Court of Kalmykia satisfied the prosecutor's claim and banned the activities of the Congress in Russia. The trial was held in the absence of the defendant's representatives - most of the members of the Congress are in exile. Thus, the leader of the association Arslang Sandzhiev left the country due to his anti-war position and persecution by the authorities and is now in the United States. His deputy Vladimir Dovdanov, recognized as a "foreign agent", also emigrated from Russia.
Altan Ochirov, an activist of the Congress, a former employee of the Elista mayor's office, was sentenced in 2022 to five years in a general regime penal colony for disseminating "fakes" about the Russian armed forces. "Memorial" recognized him as a political prisoner.
On October 8, the Kalmyk diaspora in New York held a rally in support of the Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk People. The participants of the action demanded an end to the persecution of activists of the national movement in their homeland.
