At least 54 people were arrested this friday in 14 Russian citiesbetween them Moscow and St. Petersburgfor showing their disapproval of the invasion in Ukraine, according to the organization OVD-Info, specialized in monitoring detainees and declared a foreign agent in Russia.
Specific, 18 people were arrested by the Russian Police in Saint Petersburg for carrying out individual anti-war actionssuch as placing flowers at the monument to Ukrainian painter Taras Shevchenkowrite on the snow or make pickets.
These arrests are added to those of Yekaterinburgin total 11, where several people staged spontaneous rallies in memory of the Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. In addition, at least seven people were arrested in Moscow.
Two other people were arrested in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod near the monument to Irina Slavinaa deceased journalist who committed suicide by spraying herself with some type of flammable liquid and setting herself on fire in front of a police station in protest against the government of russia. These detainees were joined by a woman and a minor carrying a anti-war poster in Barnaul.
There were also detainees in Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, where a municipal deputy was arrested who carried a sign on which he wrote “peace for Ukraine. Soldier, go home.”in Samara, in the Moscow region, and in Irkutsk.
During the last twelve months, OVD-Info has accounted for 19,586 arrests in 78 regions of Russia in protests against the invasion of the forces of Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.
At least 447 people were prosecuted in connection with anti-war protests, 128 of them are in custody.
On March 4, 2022, eight days after launching his “special military operation” in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a law punishing heavy fines or between three and 15 years in prison for dissemination of “false information” about him Russian army.
Specifically, the regulations punish with between 10 and 15 years in prison the dissemination of false information about the Armed Forces that entails “serious consequences”.
In addition, it provides penalties of imprisonment of up to 5 years for “public actions” that seek to discredit the use of the Russian Armed Forces in “defending the interests of Russia and its citizens, in the preservation of international security and peace.”
Opposite those who protest there are also those who defend Russia’s warlike intervention in the neighboring country.
Bogdan, a television channel operator, believes that the Russians are experiencing a kind of “inspiration” with everything that is happening and that Russia will “achieve its goals” in Ukraine.
“We are like that, we can spend years enduring blows and blows, but when we get up, it is difficult to stop,” he told the news agency. EFEparaphrasing the phrase of the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck about the hundreds of methods to get the bear out of the burrow and the impossibility of forcing it to go back into hiding.
He is sincerely convinced of the responsibility of the West in this conflict and considers that more than half of the Russian population shares his point of view.”This is very hard, it hurts a lot, it’s something we didn’t want to happen, but it was inevitable”, he added, noting that beyond his regret for this situation, his life has not been seriously affected.
For many, the real possibility of war knocking on their doors became a sword of Damocles: after the partial mobilization decreed by Putin in September last year, several hundred thousand Russians fled abroad.
Konstantin, a young Russian opponent who evaded the draft by escaping to Georgia, said he would like to return to his country, “but only after Putin’s removal or death, when the current regime is over.”
(With information from Europa Press and EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com