By Ekaterina Janashia | 2026-03-24

Somewhere in Novosibirsk's government files is an emergency decree that explains why riot police have been accompanying veterinarians into Siberian villages, why healthy cattle are being destroyed without blood tests, and why a Marine captain who drove out to support protesting farmers was arrested. Farmers, lawyers and regional journalists have all tried to obtain it. It is classified.

What leaked out instead were the videos -- hundreds of them. Barns emptied in hours. Carcasses burning in open pits. A minister fleeing his own building. And, in a detail that has rattled even Russia's most ardent pro-war commentators, the handcuffing of a combat veteran who showed up to ask questions.

The crisis has been building since February 2026, when government veterinary teams began moving through villages in the Ordynsky and Barabinsky districts. It was not until March 16 that regional Agriculture Minister Andrey Shindelov publicly confirmed that a state of emergency had been in effect for weeks. The decree had been marked "for official use only," a classification that barred farmers from reviewing the legal or medical grounds for the seizure of their property.

Officials cited outbreaks of pasteurellosis and rabies. But Alexandra Pyanova, a board member of the National Veterinary Chamber, pushed back. Pasteurellosis, she said, is a bacterial infection that ordinarily calls for quarantine, prevention and treatment, "not mass slaughter." Farmers echoed her skepticism, saying veterinary teams conducted blanket culls of entire herds without first drawing blood or milk tests.

On social media, some Russians took to calling it the "Special Veterinary Operation," a sardonic nod to the Kremlin's preferred name for its full-scale war in Ukraine.

Protests and arrests

Residents of several villages -- Novopichugovo, Kozikhi and Novoklyuchi among them -- recorded video appeals addressed to the Kremlin and Russia's Investigative Committee.

"The cows are currently healthy. We use their products ourselves," they said earlier this month.

In Novopichugovo, residents attempted to block roads to stop heavy machinery from entering. Law enforcement responded swiftly. According to OVD-Info, several protesters were detained, including the village's only pharmacist. Courts subsequently sentenced residents Larisa Vyunnikova and Andrey Gavrilenko to two days of detention for organizing an unauthorized public event; another local, Maxim Vil, received a similar sentence for disobedience to police.

In Novoklyuchi, authorities entered Svetlana Panina's property while she was away and destroyed 200 of her animals. When she sought an explanation at the Ministry of Agriculture, video footage appeared to show Minister Shindelov leaving the building to avoid her.

The pressure extended to veterinary workers as well.

In Novopichugovo, a local veterinarian was dismissed for "professional incompetence" after suffering a health crisis when ordered to euthanize animals she believed to be healthy. Her daughter's video describing the situation went viral, deepening local anger.

The backlash widens

The regional government maintained it acted within the law.

Alexey Salnikov, head of the Novosibirsk Region Association of Farmers, said existing outbreak protocols require the destruction of all livestock within a 3-mile (5-kilometer) radius of a confirmed infection zone.

Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said March 17 that the Agriculture Ministry was coordinating the regional response and that the measures were standard procedure for containing dangerous zoonotic diseases, though he did not address the secrecy around the decree.

This secrecy may have a more concrete explanation than bureaucratic habit.

Stanislav Sankeyev, executive director of the People's Farmer Association, suggested authorities may be concealing foot-and-mouth outbreaks to protect Russia's livestock export trade, according to Meduza.

The circumstantial evidence is hard to ignore: Russia obtained international recognition as a foot-and-mouth-free territory in 2025 -- status it would lose if an outbreak were confirmed. Kazakhstan had already banned imports of livestock, meat and milk from four Siberian regions including Novosibirsk in February. Belarus reportedly imposed an even broader ban in mid-March. Officials, however, deny any foot-and-mouth connection.

The agribusiness angle has also fueled speculation.

Some farmers believe the cull is designed to drive smallholders out of business on behalf of large agricultural producers; others have pointed fingers at meat-processing giant Miratorg, allegedly linked to former President Dmitry Medvedev. Neither claim has been verified. What is verifiable is that the culls have targeted only small private farms, with officials accusing owners of failing to maintain vaccination schedules, while larger enterprises have so far been left untouched.

Spreading discontent

The discontent spread well beyond the farms and into corners of Russian social media rarely sympathetic to public protest.

Pro-Kremlin blogger Mardan wrote on Telegram that a combat veteran had livestock seized that he had purchased with his injury payments -- animals that, the now-former farmer said, had all been vaccinated. Mardan called the episode either "inhuman stupidity" or "conscious sabotage" by Novosibirsk officials.

Singer and nationalist blogger Viktoria Tsyganova reported that Marine captain Ivan Otrakovsky had been arrested after traveling to Kozikhi to stand with the farmers.

"What will happen when dozens of ["Special Military Operation"] SVO veterans arrive?" she wrote. "Are the authorities ready to send police against soldiers?"

Other pro-war commentators compared the seizures to the Bolshevik grain requisitions of 1917 and suggested the campaign amounted to deliberate monopolization of the food supply.

The Novosibirsk region is one of Siberia's major agricultural hubs. Local estimates put livestock losses at over 2,000 head in just two districts. For many rural families, those animals represented both their only income and their food supply.

The financial toll is mounting. Total farmer losses reached 1.5 billion RUB ($17.6 million) in March alone, according to the pro-Kremlin daily Izvestia. The regional government has promised compensation of 70,000 RUB ($800) per adult cow plus nine months of minimum-wage payments -- sums farmers say bear no relation to the animals' actual value.

"These are mere pennies," one farmer told Izvestia. "By the time new cows are grown, the family will be completely broke and out of business."

"This is not just about cows," one resident wrote in a local Telegram channel. "It's about whether we have any rights on our own property once the state decides it wants what's inside."

Russia's Investigative Committee has opened a preliminary inquiry into potential negligence by Agriculture Ministry officials.