This is apparently related to Moscow punishing an environmental activist.

Alsynov is accused of insulting migrants at a demonstration against plans to mine for gold, but supporters said it was delayed revenge for his activism in preventing soda mining in what locals consider a sacred place.

He is said to have called Central Asians and Caucasians, who make up most of Russia’s migrant population, “black people”, considered a derogatory term in Russian.

But he insists the words he used in the Bashkir language mean “poor people” and were mistranslated into Russian. He intends to appeal against the verdict.