At least “707 people in 32 cities” have already been arrested across Russia, almost half of them in Moscow, according to an organization that specializes in counting arrests.
Russian authorities on Saturday (September 24) arrested more than 700 people during demonstrations against the mobilization of reservists to fight in Ukraine, ordered this week by President Vladimir Putin, an NGO reported. According to OVD-Info, an organization that specializes in counting arrests, at least “707 people in 32 cities” have already been arrested across Russia, almost half of them in Moscow.
707 people were arrested in 32 cities. Portal PHOTOGRAPHER / Portal
A large police force has been stationed in the central district of Chistye Proudy in the Russian capital, AFP journalists noted. Most of the demonstrators present walked or stood alone or in small groups to avoid detection and arrest. Despite everything, AFP was involved in the arrest of around twenty people.
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“We’re not cannon fodder!” shouted a young woman as police in hard hats dragged her away. This is one of the slogans of the demonstrators against sending mobilized troops to Ukraine. In Saint Petersburg (north-west), the country’s second largest city, AFP saw around thirty people being put into a police bus. There, too, the demonstrators tried to be discreet.
Ilia Frolov, 22, brought a small banner that read “Peace.” “I want to express my disagreement about what’s happening… I don’t want to fight for Putin,” he said. “I am against war and mobilization. I’m afraid for young people,” said another resident, Natalia Doubova, 70 years old. On Wednesday, the day Vladimir Putin announced the mobilization, nearly 1,400 protesters were arrested across Russia.
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Some of them, including two whom AFP was able to speak to, said authorities gave them a mobilization order at the police station. The Kremlin defended this practice and assured that it was not “illegal”. Demonstrations against the offensive in Ukraine are severely repressed in Russia. Several thousand people have been arrested since the conflict began in February.
On the other hand, hundreds of people gathered in Moscow and Saint Petersburg on Friday to support the offensive and the annexation of the Russian-controlled areas. Without worrying.