More than 800 people who protested this Sunday (03.13.2022) against the Russian “special military operation” in Ukraine were arrested in thirty Russian cities, according to the NGO OVD-Info, specialized in monitoring protests. AFP journalists were able to verify the arrests of several protesters by the military in Moscow and in Saint Petersburg, the country’s second largest city.
In Moscow, several dozen people defied a ban on demonstrating by gathering in a square near the Kremlin. At least 100 demonstrators and a journalist were taken away by the police, according to a reporter from the French agency present at the scene. “Peace in the world!” a woman chanted as she was forcibly taken away by two officers. Several policemen drew the letter “Z” on their helmets, a symbol expressing support for Russian soldiers deployed in Ukraine.
On Sunday afternoon, the Ministry of the Interior reported that nearly 300 people had been arrested in the capital for “various violations of public order” and specified that the possibility of initiating legal proceedings against them was being studied. In St. Petersburg, where there were many police buses in the center, the protesters tried to go unnoticed. According to OVD-Info, at least 156 were arrested on the day. “Of course it’s scary to go out (to protest). They take everyone, several of my friends have been arrested, others have been kicked out of the university,” Kristina, 20, in a blue jacket, told AFP. and yellow hat, colors of the Ukrainian flag.
“You’re all traitors, you should be arrested,” a passerby in her sixties yelled at them. Despite the ban, groups of protesters gather daily in Russia against the military operation in Ukraine. Those who protest are fined or arrested. Last Sunday, more than 5,000 protesters were arrested. According to OVD-Info, more than 14,100 people have been detained since Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine on February 24.
lgc (afp/dpa/ap)
