The ruling was challenged by Gabyshev's lawyers and supporters who say his detention is an attempt to silence dissent.
Gabyshev, who has been stopped several times by the Russian authorities since 2019 when he tried to march from his native Siberian region of Yakutia to Moscow with the stated goal of driving Putin out of office, was sent to a psychiatric clinic against his will in July after a court found him "mentally unfit" during a hearing where he had been accused of committing a "violent act against a police officer" when he was being forcibly removed from his home to be taken to a psychiatric clinic in late-January. It remains unclear why a new commission had been put together. Pryanishnikov accused officials at the time of hastily gathering together the new commission to change the decision. However, several days later, a new medical commission concluded that the shaman's psychiatric health condition "had worsened" and that he must be transferred back to a psychiatric clinic. In early August, the Ussuriisk district court ruled that Gabyshev must continue being treated at a psychiatric clinic even though a month earlier a team of psychiatrists concluded that Gabyshev could be transferred from a psychiatric clinic to a regular hospital because his "condition had improved." Shaman Aleksandr Gabyshev's lawyer, Aleksei Pryanishnikov, told RFE/RL on September 8 that the Primorye Krai regional court ruled in favor of Gabyshev's appeal against the extension of his forced treatment and sent the case back to the Ussuriisk district court for a new hearing, citing inconsistencies in medical conclusions regarding the case. VLADIVOSTOK, Russia - A court in Russia's Far East has canceled a lower court decision to prolong the forced treatment in a psychiatric clinic for a Yakut shaman who became known across the country for his attempts to march to Moscow to drive Russian President Vladimir Putin out of the Kremlin. The moves are expected to severely harm Russia's economy and the ruble. On February 26, a group of Western countries agreed to to block access for "selected" Russian banks to the SWIFT financial system and impose "restrictive" measures against Russia's central bank over Putin’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg expressed alarm, saying it shows how serious the standoff over Russia's invasion of Ukraine is. "It means that President Putin is continuing to escalate this war in a manner that is totally unacceptable and we have to continue to stem his actions in the strongest possible way," Thomas-Greenfield said in interview with CBS. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the order was an unacceptable escalation. We have the ability to defend ourselves, but we also need to call out what we're seeing here from President Putin," Psaki said in comments to ABC.
This is all a pattern from President Putin and we're going to stand up to it. At no point has Russia been under threat from NATO, has Russia been under threat from Ukraine. "We've seen him do this time and time again.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the alert is part of a pattern of Moscow manufacturing threats to justify aggression. The order immediately raised concerns that the tensions with the West could lead to the use of nuclear weapons. Lead Agreement To Block Russia's Access To SWIFT Banking Network