More than 1,300 arrested during protests against mobilization

By Jeanne Plaumann

There are protests in all major cities of the country against the Kremlin tyrant’s order to conscript citizens belonging to the reserve of the Russian Armed Forces. A total of 300,000 Russians are to be mobilized and fighting in Ukraine.

Many Russians apparently want to prevent this and are taking to the streets. They’re shouting “No to War!” in the middle of Moscow – although the term is still banned in Russia. Officially, the bloody war in Ukraine is a “special operation” in Russia.

The security apparatus reacted promptly to the protests. A large police force is taking action against the demonstrators across the country.

Videos from Moscow show, among other things, how a young woman – apparently unconscious – is being dragged away by special police units. Numerous photos show the officers beating demonstrators and violently carrying away protesters.

According to the NGO OVD-Info, there have been more than 1,300 arrests in at least 38 Russian cities.

► In St. Petersburg police rounded up small groups of demonstrators and then arrested the demonstrators one by one. “Everyone is afraid,” said the demonstrator Vasily Fedorov. “I am for peace and I don’t want to have to shoot.” But in Russia it is “very dangerous” to take to the streets for these demands – “otherwise there would have been many more people”.

▶︎ In the city center of Moscow at least 50 people were arrested on a shopping street. The protests grew significantly over the course of the evening. Videos show demonstrators marching through the streets of the capital chanting “No to War!”

▶︎ Also in Tomsk and Irkutsk According to OVD-Info, people took to the streets in Siberia, in Yekaterinburg in the Urals and in other places. They held up placards with the colors of the Ukrainian flag and slogans such as “No to mobilization!”.

► In the Russian exclave Kaliningrad (between Poland and Lithuania) people gathered for a demonstration. There were also reports of arrests there.

Lawyer Lyubov Sobol, who works on the team of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, shared a video on Twitter showing women demonstrating. They keep shouting “Our children shall live!”, visibly afraid that their sons will be sent to the war in Ukraine.

► In the capital Moscow, the authorities had warned against participation before the start of a planned demonstration: the public prosecutor threatened people with up to 15 years in prison. Since the start of the war against Ukraine almost seven months ago, the Russian government has been taking tough action against members of the opposition and opponents of the war, including stricter laws.

But the demonstrations against Putin’s mobilization order on Wednesday were not only in Russia. People also gathered in front of Russian embassies and in European cities.

In Warsaw, people shouted “Putin is Russia’s enemy” and waved Ukrainian flags and flags of Russian fighters fighting on the side of Ukraine (white-blue-white) in front of the Russian embassy.

On Wednesday morning, Putin ordered partial mobilization

Almost seven months after the attack on Ukraine, Putin ordered a partial mobilization of his own armed forces on Wednesday morning. The Kremlin tyrant said on Russian TV that the Defense Ministry had made this proposal.

▶︎ Putin: “I support the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff to carry out partial mobilization in the Russian Federation.”

Those citizens who belong to the reserve of the Russian armed forces would be called to arms. “First of all” those citizens who served in the army, have military skills and experience. They would all undergo “additional military preparation” prior to combat deployment. Putin emphasized that it was “expressly a partial mobilization”.