Not everyone agrees with Putin within Russia. The show was this Sunday fifty demonstrations held in different cities of the country, including the capital Moscow, against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The regime’s repression has been powerful and more than 3,500 people have been arrested, according to data provided by Irina Volk, spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of the Interior. The NGO OVD-Info, specialized in monitoring demonstrations, has quantified at 11,000 the number of protesters arrested since Russia began the invasion of Ukraine on February 24. The Government insists that these are “unauthorized” concentrations.
Despite harsh intimidation and threats of prison sentences, the protests have not stopped, sometimes without much influx, for ten days in different cities. The imprisoned Russian opponent Alexei Navalnia staunch opponent of intervention, has urged Russians to take to the streets every day to call for an end to the Russian military operation in neighboring Ukraine.
In Moscow, at least 560 people have been arrested, according to data provided by the NGO OVD-Info, including a head of the NGO Mémorial, Oleg Orlov, and the well-known militant Svetlana Gannushkina. At least 279 people were also detained in St. Petersburg.
Navalni’s appeal
Navalni continues to cheer the population that he has urged to “ignore the prohibitions”. The opponent described Putin as a “crazy dictator” that he has “demolished all the achievements of the country in a matter of days” and “will condemn the country to guilt for decades”. “It is normal to be afraid, but succumbing to it means siding with fascists and murderers. For dignity, against Putin, for Russia and against the war,” Navalni concluded.
At the same time, the repressive apparatus does nothing but harden. Both the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office As the Ministry of Interior have reiterated in recent hours their warnings to the population not to participate in the protests after recalling that it is punished with up to eight years from prison The Russian Interior Ministry warned Russian citizens on Thursday, February 24, that the authorities will take “all necessary measures” to maintain law and order in the protests and warned that the police will arrest all participants in actions unauthorized.
The repression It also fully reaches the media field. The harassment and downing of the media and social media indicates the government’s determination to stifle any dissenting voices on the Ukraine conflict, even if it might mean cutting off Russia’s internet from the rest of the world, experts say.
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The blocking of Facebook and the restriction of Twitter came on the same day that Moscow backed the imposition of jail sentences on media that published “false information” about the military. Russia’s motivation “is to suppress political challenges at a very tense time for (Vladimir) Putin and the regime, when it comes to those who are asking very difficult questions about why Russia is continuing to wage this war,” said Steven Feldstein, principal investigator at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Russia thus joins the tiny club of countries that exclude Facebook, the world’s largest social network, along with China and North Korea.
The major international media with a correspondent in Moscow have left the country in the face of threats from the Kremlin against reporters, who are at risk of being sentenced to prison for reporting against the regime.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.