The Russian police have sometimes brutally cracked down on participants in anti-war protests. In Moscow alone, more than 100 people were arrested on Saturday at a demonstration against partial mobilization in Russia for the war in Ukraine. In St. Petersburg, videos were published on social networks showing men in combat uniform and helmets beating demonstrators.
The human rights portal ovd.info, citing eyewitnesses, reported that the security forces used electric batons. In the late afternoon there was talk of 289 arrests in a total of 22 cities across the country.
Independent media showed photos and videos of demonstrators on Saturday afternoon, among others from the city of Khabarovsk in the far east of the country and from Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Tomsk and Chita in Siberia. Accordingly, people held up posters with inscriptions such as “We are not meat”. Several recordings show them being led away by police officers.
Russian President Putin ordered a partial mobilization of his army last Wednesday – seven months after the invasion of Ukraine. This caused panic among many Russians. The first major protests since the beginning of the war broke out that same evening. According to the civil rights portal OVD-Info, more than 1,300 people were arrested.
