Protests across Russia see thousands detained

[Rogue Valley]

Protests across Russia see thousands detained

Protesters crammed into a police bus in St. Petersburg, Russia.

3.6.22
Thousands of people have been detained at anti-war protests across Russia on Sunday, rights groups and Russian authorities say. Some 1,700 people were detained in Moscow alone, the RIA news agency reported, citing the interior ministry. The OVD-Info rights group says detainments took place in 49 cities. Although protests have become increasingly restricted in recent years, rallies have taken place across Russia since the Ukraine invasion. More than 10,000 people have been detained since the war began 11 days ago, OVD-Info says. "The screws are being fully tightened - essentially we are witnessing military censorship," Maria Kuznetsova, OVD-Info's spokeswoman, told Reuters news agency from Tbilisi in Georgia. "We are seeing rather big protests today - even in Siberian cities, where we only rarely saw such numbers of arrests." Earlier this week, government critic Alexei Navalny - who is in jail on fraud charges - called for daily demonstrations against the invasion, saying Russia should not be a "nation of frightened cowards".

The Putin regime will allow no protest by citizens. In Russia today, even saying the word "war" in relation to Ukraine is a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison.