From the MT:
“Several Hundred Detained as
Russians Protest Mobilization”
Several hundred people have been
detained across Russia on Wednesday as rallies against a military mobilization declared
by President Vladimir Putin for the war in Ukraine took place in areas from the
Far East to the capital Moscow. According to the independent OVD-Info police
monitor, at least 525 protesters have been detained nationwide so far with at
least half of the count recorded in the capital Moscow.
The Vesna opposition movement as
well as supporters of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny called on Russians
nationwide to take to the streets on Wednesday evening to oppose the Kremlin’s
decision to bolster its forces in Ukraine with a “partial” mobilization. The first protests took place across cities in
Siberia and the Far East, where dozens were arrested, often just minutes after
the rallies began, according to local reports. Small groups of protesters gathered
in Ulan-Ude, the capital of the republic of Buryatia; Yakutsk, the capital of
the republic of Sakha; and the Far East cities of Khabarovsk and Irkutsk. Protesters
in Ulan-Ude were seen carrying handwritten signs reading “No war! No
mobilization!” and “Our husbands, fathers and brothers don’t want to kill other
husbands and fathers.”
In the Siberian city of Tomsk, a
female protester carrying a sign reading “Hug me if you are also scared” was
among the 15 people detained shortly after the start of the protest, according
to local Telegram news channel Ulitsa Barkhatnaya. In Novosibirsk, Russia’s
third-largest city, video published to social media showed a protester shouting
“I don’t want to die for Putin or for you!” Protests then took place across the
cities in Russia’s Volga-Ural region. At least 45 people were detained in the
region’s largest city Yekaterinburg, while dozens others were arrested in Perm,
Chelyabinsk and Ufa, the capital of the republic of Bashkortostan, according to
OVD-Info.
In the capital Moscow, several
hundred people gathered on the central Stary Arbat street amid heavy police
presence. Protesters could be seen chanting “No war!” “Send Putin to the
trenches!” and “Let our children live!” in videos published to social media.
In St. Petersburg, protesters who
gathered near the central St. Isaac's Square were quickly encircled by police,
according to videos from the scene. But others continued to march through the
city center.
Rallies also took place in the city of
Arkhangelsk in the Far North, the southern city of Krasnodar, the Baltic
exclave Kaliningrad and others. In Kazan, the capital of the republic of
Tatarstan, a small group of female protesters marched through central streets
chanting “Peace to the world. No to mobilization!” after the initial rally was
dispersed. A total of 300,000 Russian reservists are expected to be called up
for military service during the campaign, according to Defense Minister Sergei
Shoigu. But the mobilization efforts
could be more far-reaching given the vague wording of the mobilization decree,
according to human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov, who has been helping Russian
soldiers opposed to the war.
^ The end of the beginning… ^
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