Fearful Russian thugs from Omon paramilitary groups take to the streets to destroy any opposition to Vladimir Putin‘s invasion of Ukraine.
Nearly 6,000 people have already been detained in anti-war protests across the country, with astronauts wearing helmets in camouflage anti-riot gear regularly dragging protesters.
Protests against the invasion began in Russia on Thursday and have continued every day since, although Omon and police have been moving quickly to quell the rallies.
The Kremlin has tried to downplay the protests, insisting that a much wider proportion of Russians support the attack on Ukraine.
But younger, technology-savvy Russians with access to independent media have expressed opposition to the Kremlin’s invasion, risking imprisonment and even accusations of treason.
Protester abducted by members of Omon’s paramilitary groups during a demonstration in Moscow yesterday
Nearly 6,000 people have been detained in anti-war protests across the country since Thursday
Fearful Russian thugs from Omon’s paramilitary leaders take to the streets to destroy any opposition to the invasion
Protests against the invasion began in Russia on Thursday and have continued every day since
In St. Petersburg, where several hundred gathered in the city center, fully armed police grabbed protesters one after another and dragged some into police vans, although the demonstration was peaceful.
Police in Moscow show police throwing several protesting women to the ground before abducting them.
In Pushkin Square, a planned protest was stopped by several hundred officers in camouflage uniforms and helmets with visors, located in groups of three and five yards apart in each 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.
Police detain man during protest against Russian invasion of Ukraine in central Moscow yesterday
The Kremlin has tried to downplay the protests, insisting that a much wider proportion of Russians support the attack on Ukraine.
Astronauts with helmets in camouflage equipment to fight riots are a regular place on the streets of Russia
Small groups of young people, who listened to the calls on social networks for protest, stood around, nervously chatting and smoking.
Each time a group of six or more formed, police raided, demanding documents and handbags and backpacks.
According to the OVD-Info rights group, which monitors political arrests, police detained at least 2,710 Russians in 51 cities for anti-war demonstrations on Sunday, bringing the total number of detainees in nearly four days to nearly 6,000.
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.
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”.
According to the OVD-Info rights group, which monitors political arrests, police detained at least 2,710 Russians in 51 cities for anti-war demonstrations on Sunday.
Sunday’s anti-war protests seemed smaller and more dispersed than those held on the first day of Russia’s attack.
In Moscow and St. Petersburg, many people went to makeshift monuments to Boris Nemtsov
The amendment was clearly intended to criminalize anti-war protests with severe punishment.
Sunday’s anti-war protests seemed smaller and more dispersed than those held on the first day of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, when thousands gathered in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
“This is a crime against both Ukraine and Russia. I think it kills both Ukraine and Russia. I am outraged, I have not slept for three nights and I think we must now say very loudly that we do not want to be killed and we do not want Ukraine to be killed, “said Olga Mikheeva, who is protesting in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.
In Moscow and St. Petersburg, many people went to makeshift memorials to Boris Nemtsov, a senior Russian oppositionist who was shot dead near the Kremlin on February 27, 2015.
Some brought flowers to honor Nemtsov’s memory, while others also held banners to protest the invasion of Ukraine, only to be detained minutes after they were removed.
Access to Twitter and Facebook is limited, and human rights defenders fear that such steps will soon be taken against YouTube.
Russia’s state communications and media body, Roskomnadzor, on Sunday asked Google to lift the restrictions
Anti-riot police detain protester during anti-war protest in Pushkin Square in central Moscow
Nemtsov, one of Russia’s most charismatic opposition figures, has been a staunch supporter of fighting in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014 in a protracted conflict that has killed more than 14,000 people.
In recent days, Russian authorities have begun to stifle critical voices.
Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of Russia’s lower house of parliament, said the anti-war stance of “certain cultural figures” was “inappropriate” and “nothing less than betrayal of your own people.”
Access to Twitter and Facebook is limited, and human rights activists fear that such steps will soon be taken against YouTube.
Russia’s state communications and media body, Roskomnadzor, on Sunday asked Google to lift restrictions on YouTube channels run by several Russian state media outlets.
The rights group Network Freedoms noted that Facebook’s refusal to comply with such a request this week led to limited access to the platform.
The website of Current Time, a Russian television channel launched by US-funded Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty that criticizes the Kremlin, became unavailable on Sunday after the channel announced it had received a notification from Roskomnadzor about its blockade.
In addition to street protests, tens of thousands of people in recent days have supported open letters and signed petitions condemning the invasion.
The media has created divisions in Russia, with older and less educated people more likely to rely on state television
Russian government announces Soviet-style ban on all references to “war” or “invasion” in any media
Celebrities and celebrities also spoke out against it. An online petition launched hours after Putin announced the attack garnered more than 930,000 signatures in four days, becoming one of the most widely supported petitions in Russia in recent years.
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.
The media has created divisions in Russia, with older and less educated people more likely to rely on state television, while younger generations use the Internet for their news.
Surveys show that the former make up about 70 percent of the population.
“Everything will end quickly as soon as we get these fascists out of Kyiv,” 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.