The host of the Open Media YouTube channel Rostislav Murzagulov, the ex-PR manager of the head of Bashkortostan Radiy Khabirov, said that he was not happy about the arrest of the ex-coordinator of the Ufa headquarters of Alexei Navalny, Lilia Chanysheva, who has been in jail for nine months in the case of an extremist community. In a conversation with The Insider, Murzagulov denied the words of Chanysheva's spouse Almaz Gatin and was indignant that both opinions were not given in the previous material. ( The Insider reached out for Murzagulov's comment after the first news release). However, Gatin himself told The Insider that Murzagulov “has been pouring slop on his wife through information propaganda for five years,” and now “he wants to get out of the water clean.”

“I was not at all happy about the arrest of Chanysheva, I was extremely indignant, because to arrest a girl who had done nothing ... I was one of the first to sign a guarantee for her release, because she is absolutely not dangerous to society. I gave hundreds of comments on this topic to all the media then, I was the chairman of the Public Chamber of Bashkiria and was then an influential person. You were misled, which is very sad,” Murzagulov said.

At the same time, the presenter added that he had big complaints against Navalny's Ufa headquarters, because at one time they "worked very closely with the Bashkir nationalists," who were allegedly used "for litigation with each other by various oligarchs." The presenter claims that he then criticized the headquarters, after which he was "aggressed" and Navalny spoke out about Murzagulov.

Asked if his opinion of Navalny has changed since then, Murzagulov replied:

“It is disgusting that he ended up in jail and that someone tried to kill him. It's clear who it was. The fact that at that time the specific activity of a specific headquarters in a specific place was destructive for the republic - I do not change this opinion. Whether Navalny knew this or not, I don't know. I also don’t understand why Navalny brought everyone to the streets just before the Ukrainian events, so that everyone would be rewritten and carefully put in prisons. It is very beneficial for the authorities.”

The host said that he did not know whether Navalny did this "consciously or just happened." According to him, the protests were not good for the liberal movement, of which Murzagulov himself, he claims, has always been a part.

Murzagulov added that he did not say "any positive things" about Chanysheva's arrest, but spoke only about public hearings on the budget. ( In 2019, Murzagulov said he had "not the slightest regret" that Navalny's representatives failed to speak at the budget hearings ).

“It was about public hearings on the budget, where she just came, stood on the podium and did nonsense.”

Commenting on the invitation to lead the MBKh project, Murzagulov said that he could not be involved in politics and "not get all this shit on his head," but he does it deliberately. He added that after February 24, no normal person has the right to remain silent "regardless of what it comes back to."

“No matter what Navalny, Plyushchev, or Potupchik say in their Nebozhene about me, I will still do what I think is necessary, and let them all go to hell.”

Chanysheva's husband, Almaz Gatin, told The Insider that when Murzagulov was the head of information policy for the head of Bashkortostan, Radiy Khabirov, his wife, working at Navalny's headquarters, received "unpleasant reviews through certain publications." Chanysheva repeatedly tried to get to budget hearings, after which her activities were negatively covered in the information field. According to Gatin, these were notes with the participation of Murzagulov from the series: “Here we are here, we define ourselves, and where are you going?”, They also “poured his wife with impartial words.”

Murzagulov, according to Gatin, was also part of Khabirov’s inner circle, and the entire negative information agenda regarding Chanysheva’s activities in Bashkortostan is “direct and complete aggression on the part of those who have state channels in their hands, plus Telegram bots.”

“All five years, cheating on her was on his part. My wife has been kept in a pre-trial detention center for the ninth month on far-fetched cases. Her whole life was devoted to our Bashkiria, and all this slop about "an American agent or a CIA officer" poured on her. In addition to being a very beautiful person, she is also a strong person, she defends our homeland Bashkortostan. When this (Murzagulov) lived in Bashkortostan, he was given apartments, cars and budget money, and instead of directing them to the development of our region, he used them for his part. And now Khodorkovsky is hiring him.”

Gatin added that many people will donate to Khodorkovsky, and now they can pay Murzagulov with this money:

“This is the money of honest people, and this scum will now sit on this money. Khodorkovsky also had representatives of the headquarters, which were closed. This is the same thing that happened to Navalny - now the person who destroyed the opposition will sit on lure. Where is the logic? This scum, which for five years through information propaganda poured slop on it, now wants to get out of the water clean. The fact that he wrote in Vozdukh that he defended Navalny in his offices is a blatant lie, there was nothing like that. You can't leave it like this."

Earlier, Almaz Gatin, Lilia Chanysheva's husband, turned to Mikhail Khodorkovsky because Murzagulov had become one of the hosts on Khodorkovsky's Open Media channel. Gatin was indignant that Murzagulov "fought against her and helped the authorities destroy the opposition," and now he will work in Khodorkovsky's media.

Lilia Chanysheva was detained on November 9, 2021 after many hours of interrogation and search. The police also came with searches to more than ten oppositionists and employees of Navalny's headquarters in the Kemerovo region and Bashkiria. She is the first person to be arrested in the "extremist" case initiated after the defeat of Navalny's structures in 2021. Under her leadership, Navalny's headquarters in Ufa became "one of the strongest" in Russia, his supporters said.

Chanysheva was charged under five criminal articles: Part 2 of Art. 151.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (involving minors in the commission of actions that pose a danger to the life of a minor), part 4 of Art. 174 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (laundering of money or other property acquired by other persons by criminal means), part 2 of Art. 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (production, storage, transportation or sale of goods and products, performance of work or provision of services that do not meet safety requirements), part 1, part 2 of Art. 282.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organization of an extremist community), part 1 of Art. 282.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (financing of extremist activities). Only under "extremist" articles she is threatened with eight-year terms of imprisonment.