Alexander Gabyshev, a shaman (witch doctor) from the east-Siberian region of Yakutia, who was detained after statements about his plans to walk from Siberia to Moscow and "expel Putin", has made public his intention to continue his odyssey to the capital city from the place where he was stopped. He said he expects to accomplish his target by 2021.
Gabyshev promised along with it that although he would be accompanied by "group of defenders” in further legs of his trip, the campaign he has launched will have an exclusively peaceful character.In early October, reports suggested that forensic experts, who had done Alexander Gabyshev’s comprehensive psychological and psychiatric examination, had declared him insane.Shaman's lawyers dismissed the forensic study conclusions as improper, since the study was combined with the interrogation of Gabyshev as a suspect. They insist that objective results can be obtained only on the basis of examination at hospital.At the end of next week, the lawyers expect the conclusion of a third-party examination, which they say will be more objective. At present, Gabyshev is on recognizance not to leave.The man set out on foot from the city of Yakutsk to Moscow about six months ago. He hoped to arrive in the Russian capital by 2021. As the objective of his campaign, he named "the expulsion of Putin", whom he views as a product of dark forces, which only a shaman can cope with.During the journey, Gabyshev managed to cover a distance of more than 2,000 km and to talk to hundreds of drivers. Videos from these meetings were posted on the Internet and became popular. Some of them have been viewed by more than a million people. At the time of detention Gabyshev, was pulling a two-meter cart, and he was accompanied by a group of 20 people.He was detained on the border between the east-Siberian regions of Buryatia and Irkutsk in the early hours of Thursday, September 19. After it, he was taken to Yakutsk by plane on charges of calling for violence against Putin.As Gabyshev told The New York Times, to expel Putin, he planned to light a campfire on Red Square right by the Kremlin wall, beat a tambourine and beg Putin “to resign”. If the ritual was banned, millions of people would rebel and demand that Putin step down, the shaman added.It is noteworthy that genuine shamans are dissatisfied with Gabyshev. They speak rather harshly of him, stating that "there are a lot of such shamans in Moscow, called bums". Back in Buryatia, the fighter against Putin had to face local shamans who blocked his way. They demanded from Gabyshev, better known as Sanya the Shaman, to stop referring to himself in this manner, as it touches them to the quick.