Pics: Reports Claim over 5,000 Detained in Five Days of Anti-War Protests in Russia

Ukrainian state media on Tuesday quoted an estimate from independent Russian human rights group OVD-Info that “at least 6,474 people have already been detained during anti-war rallies that swept across Russia after Russian troops invaded Ukraine.”

“On Monday, 487 people were detained in 14 cities across the country. Most of them were arrested in Moscow (274) and in St. Petersburg (188). On the previous day, 2,802 people were detained in 56 cities,” Ukraine’s Ukrinform news service wrote.

Ukrinform noted the Russian government warned its citizens they could be held criminally liable for participating in anti-war rallies – possibly even facing prosecution for “treason” if convicted of “supporting a foreign country” by weakening the war effort – but demonstrations have still been held in cities across Russia.

Reuters on Monday cited OVD-Info data to estimate 5,500 total detentions at anti-war protests since Thursday. 

Sunday was an especially busy day for demonstrators because it marked the seventh anniversary of the murder of Boris Nemtsov, an opposition politician and outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin shot in the back by unknown assailants while strolling across a bridge in Moscow with his Ukrainian girlfriend.

Protesters shouting “No to war!” were dragged away by police from an improvised memorial to Nemtsov constructed on the bridge where he was killed. At least one independent Russian journalist was arrested despite showing valid press credentials to the police.

“In Moscow, riot police often outnumbered protesters, some of whom carried hand-written placards with peace signs and anti-war slogans in Russian and Ukrainian. Some wore masks with the word ‘Enough’ emblazoned in the front,” Reuters reported.

The Putin regime cracked down on protesters by denying nearly all requests for permission to hold rallies, even “single-picket” events with tiny numbers of socially-distanced demonstrators conceived as a way to work around restrictions justified with the Wuhan coronavirus. Speech controls have been expanded to include not only “fake news,” but online posts that “libel” the Russian government by strongly criticizing it.

“Roskomnadzor, the federal media and communications censorship agency, ordered Russian news outlets to report only information from official Russian sources. Several news outlets were subsequently ordered to cease independent news coverage of the invasion or were blocked,” the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

“Roskomnadzor also began restricting access to social media, including Facebook and Twitter, further limiting information about the invasion — and blocking a popular means of organizing protests,” the Washington Post added.

Huge rallies against the war are being held outside Russia as well. On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry lodged a complaint with the U.S. ambassador to Moscow over “hostile” protests near its diplomatic facilities in the United States.