- Matt Murphy
- BBC News
3 hours ago
Protesters refuse to participate in the war on Ukraine
The Russian authorities have arrested hundreds, amid continuing protests in various regions of the country once morest the “partial mobilization” of the reserve forces, according to an independent human rights organization.
The Russian human rights organization OVD-Info reported that 724 people were arrested on Saturday in 32 cities.
The protests erupted following President Vladimir Putin announced that 300,000 people had been called up to fight in Ukraine.
Russian law prohibits unauthorized gatherings.
But Putin’s decision to call up civilians for war sparked a wave of protests in urban areas, with police arresting 1,000 people in protests earlier this week.
And Agence France-Presse reported that one of the demonstrators in Moscow was shouting, “We are not fuel for war,” among them she was arrested by police.
In Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, a man told reporters: “I don’t want to fight for Putin.”
Natalia Dubova, 70, was quoted by AFP as saying that she opposes the war, and stated that she “fears for young people from conscription.”
There were reports that some detainees were handed their recruitment papers and ordered to join army stations while they were in the hands of the police. The Kremlin defended these practices earlier this week, claiming that they “are not once morest the law.”
Moscow also imposed severe penalties on those accused of abandoning the duty of conscription.
On Saturday, Putin signed new orders requiring 10 years in prison for every soldier who surrenders, tries to desert or refuses to fight.
The president also signed an order granting Russian citizenship to every foreign citizen who enlisted for a year to fight in the Russian army.
Some see this order, which skips the requirement to reside in the country for years, as evidence of the acute human shortage in the Russian army.
Many young Russians seek to escape conscription by leaving the country.
The length of the Russians’ queues in their cars on the border with Georgia reached 30 kilometers, while the Ministry of the Interior urged citizens not to travel.
Russian local officials acknowledged that there was a large wave of cars trying to leave the country. At one crossing point, there were 2,500 cars.
This admission indicates a change in the tone of the rhetoric in Russia, as the Kremlin on Thursday described reports of Russians deserting conscription as “fake news.”
Finland recorded an increase in the number of Russians seeking entry to the country. Border Guard spokesman Matti Yetkaniti revealed that the number of Russians who have arrived in the country has doubled or more than doubled since last week.
The government also announced Friday that it intends to ban Russian tourists from entering the country.
President Sauli Niinistö told Finnish television that the goal was to reduce the number of people coming from Russia.
Neighboring countries have ruled out granting political asylum to Russians who have escaped conscription in their country.
“Many Russian deserters today agreed to kill Ukrainians, they did not protest it, it is wrong to consider them as opponents,” said Latvian Foreign Minister Edgar Rbinkevik.
On Friday, the Kremlin unveiled the jobs exempt from conscription, which are aimed at boosting Russia’s military capabilities in Ukraine.
President Putin made it clear on Wednesday that workers in the communications technology sector, banks and journalists working in government institutions are not subject to the conscription order.
But some are skeptical of the Kremlin’s claims, and reports from Russia have reported that a number of unqualified men have been ordered to enlist.
The editor-in-chief of Russia Today, Margarita Simonyan, posted on Twitter a list of elderly and disabled people who received summons to join the army.
