Over 1,000 Arrested in Antiwar Protests Across Russia

 

The majority of the arrests happened in Moscow

by Dave DeCamp 

Posted onFebruary 24, 2022CategoriesNewsTagsRussia, Ukraine

As Russian missiles rained down on Ukraine, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in cities across Russia to protest their government’s offensive on Thursday, and many were detained by police.

According to the Russian rights monitoring group OVD-Info, at least 1,758 people were detained at antiwar protests in 55 Russian cities. Of that number, 967 were arrested in Moscow, and 431 were detained in Saint Petersburg.

In Moscow, protesters gathered at Pushkinskaya Square, in the center of the city. Demonstrators carried signs with antiwar slogans that read: “Stop the war,” “Ukraine is not our enemy,” “No one needs this war.”

According to RT, the Moscow police said they “temporarily detained” 600 people. OVD-Info published a list on its website of the names of the people that have been arrested in each city.

Some prominent Russians have spoken out against President Vladimir Putin’s decision to attack Ukraine, including journalists and other public figures. Yelena Kovalskaya, the director of a state-funded theater in Moscow, quit her job and wrote on Facebook that it’s “impossible to work for a killer and get paid by him.”

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/02/24/over-1000-arrested-in-antiwar-protests-across-russia/