More than 900 people were detained in 44 cities yesterday after anti-war protests erupted in Russia.
Here in Moscow, the regime took no chances, filling boulevards and squares with police and troops.
In Pushkin Square, a planned protest was stopped by several hundred officers in urban camouflage uniforms and helmets with visors, located in groups of three and five yards apart in every public space.
Threatening men in civilian clothes but with black cloth face masks stood at the entrances to malls, shops and clubs, ready to repel protesters if they tried to escape.
Small groups of young people, who listened to the calls on social networks for protest, stood around, nervously chatting and smoking.
At the moment, both repression and propaganda machines are working effectively to keep the Russian people in terrible awe of their leader.
Each time a group of six or more formed, police raided, demanding documents and handbags and backpacks.
A young man who dared to shout “No to war!” His hands were pressed behind his back by three “astronauts” – slang for members with helmets of the famous brutal paramilitary police of Omon – and was taken by a frog to a line of waiting police officers vans.
On Gogolevsky Boulevard last night, near the Kremlin towers, a group of nearly 100 people gathered for an anti-war prayer in a nearby cathedral quickly found themselves surrounded and captured by police forces, at least twice their number.
A lieutenant from Omon approached me as I stood next to three young directors with cameras tucked under their coats.
After a short calculation, he decided not to detain us. But he growled a threatening order.
“My friend. Throw away that cigarette.
The young operator obeyed quickly.
In cafes around the city, young people exchanged news from Meduza, an independent online news site now based in Latvia after being expelled from Russia, and exchanged footage of their friends in police vans.
Yasha, a 21-year-old theater student, said: “Once you are arrested, you are imprisoned for two days and you get a criminal record.
“For the second time, it’s three months. And they throw out of college or their job. This is really horrible.
Nearly 3,000 people have been detained in Russia since the invasion began.
An already repressive treason law – which provides for a sentence of up to 15 years in prison – has been updated to include “any action that benefits or assists the enemy”.
The amendment was clearly intended to criminalize anti-war protests with severe punishment.
Today there are two Moscow and two Russia. One made up mostly of young and technology-savvy people who have access to independent news on the internet; others, older and less educated, who still depend on state television for information
Access to Facebook, popular with anti-Putin Russians, has been suspended.
Instagram, Twitter, Google and YouTube may soon follow the sanctions-inspired ban on all revenue from these platforms, which goes to Russian government-linked entities.
Telegram, a more secure social media site where protest organizers share information about planned meetings, is being closely monitored by the Federal Security Service and police, which saturate planned protest areas with officials as soon as they are announced.
The Russian government has also announced a Soviet-style ban on all references to “war” or “invasion” in any media – declaring the aggression against Ukraine to be called a “limited military operation.”
At the same time, the Kremlin’s media machine has stepped up in an attempt to convince Russian viewers and listeners that the Kremlin is “liberating” Ukraine from a “fascist” US-backed puppet government.
Dmitry Kiselyov, one of the Kremlin’s most venomous television propagandists, accused German Chancellor Olaf Scholz of “solidarity with today’s genocide”, which Kiselyov, like Putin’s parrot, said was being used against Russian-speakers in Ukraine.
Yet the reality of Western sanctions on the Russian economy – in particular the suspension of Swift’s banks, the international interbank transfer system – is already becoming apparent.
In many branches of Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, ATMs are running out and yesterday withdrawals were limited to just 300 rubles – about £ 2.50.
However, there are Muscovites who continue to support Putin. ‘
“Everything will end quickly as soon as we get these fascists out of Kiev,” said Marina Gordeeva, 38, a producer on a TV shopping channel.
“The Ukrainian people will thank us.”
Many other Russians remain convinced that the conflict was provoked by the West.
“NATO pushed us into this war,” said Vladimir Butirkin, 61, a retired truck driver.
“We are a peaceful nation. Nobody in Russia wanted that. Ukrainians are our brothers – but sometimes you have to fix your brothers when they come up with stupid ideas.
Today there are two Moscow and two Russia.
One made up mostly of young and technology-savvy people who have access to independent news on the internet; others, older and less educated, who still depend on state television for information.
Surveys show that the latter groups make up about 70 percent of the population.
In his 20s in power, Putin has assembled a huge army of police, Interior Ministry troops and 350,000 Russian National Guards with the exact aim of suppressing public dissent.
If Putin’s army stops facing more than expected resistance and its economy collapses under the pressure of unprecedented sanctions, more Russians will begin to doubt the party line.
He also created a highly professional and well-funded propaganda machine.
If Putin’s army stops facing more than expected resistance and its economy collapses under the pressure of unprecedented sanctions, more Russians will begin to doubt the party line.
But for now, both repression and propaganda machines are working effectively to keep the Russian people in terrible awe of their leader.