The activists appeared on Russia 1 channel’s “Special Correspondent” programme to talk about life in Uzbekistan.
Yelena Urlayeva, head of the Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan, said that even though the programme was devoted to the life of ethnic Russians in Central Asian countries, she and her colleagues had spoken about the difficulties faced by the entire population of Uzbekistan.
She said that after the programme was aired, the women had rung her doorbell saying that they wanted to punish her for speaking on Russian television.
“The women looked vulgar and their eyes betrayed that they were under the influence of drugs,” Urlayeva said. “They grabbed my hand and tried to pull me out, and I heard male voices demanding a serious talk with me.”
Urlayeva said that the women had only left her flat after she told them that she had a CCTV camera installed there.
Tatyana Dovlatova, another of the activists who appeared on the programme, said she had been subject to similar treatment and was accused of encouraging interethnic hatred in Uzbekistan. “I tried to explain that I had only talked about small pensions, a problem that affects the country’s whole population, but when I realised who I was dealing with I started screaming in the street,” Dovlatova said.
The mother of a third activist, Viktoriya Bazhenova, said that her daughter and she did not open their door to visitors late at night and called police. However, after waiting 90 minutes for the police, the woman said, their neighbours chased the four women out of their porch.
The activists believe that the attacks were ordered by the authorities to intimidate them for talking to foreign journalists.
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