More than 4,600 people protesting without authorization against the war in Ukraine were arrested on Sunday in about sixty cities in Russia, according to the OVD-info NGO, specializing in the monitoring of events.
Le Monde with AFP
The repression against the anti-polish protesters does not falter in Russia. At least 4,640 people were arrested on Sunday, March 6 in 65 cities, bringing more than 13,000 the number of arrests since the triggering of the Russian military operation on February 24, “said OVD-Info, a Russian NGO responsible for counting arbitrary arrests.
Despite the intimidation of the authorities and the threat of heavy prison sentences, of protest, certainly limited, have occurred daily for eleven days in different cities of the country. The opponent imprisoned Alexei Navalny, who is against the intervention in Ukraine, called the Russians this week to meet every day on the main square of their city to demand peace in Ukraine.
Some 1,700 people were arrested just in Moscow Sunday, said the police. According to OVD-Info, one of the Memorial NGOs, Oleg Orlov, and the Svetlana Gannouchkina activist are part of it. Several activists and NGOs have published Sunday on social networks showing videos showing brutal arrests, with battle. The first arrests took place, time difference requires, in the Far East and Siberia. More than 200 people have been arrested in the big cities of Novosibirsk and Iekaterinburg, still according to OVD-info.
New repressive laws
To dissuade any criticism, the Russian authorities adopted Friday a new law repressed “the misleading information” on the activities of the Russian army in Ukraine. According to this text, the sentences incurred range from fines to fifteen years in prison. Russian and foreign media has announced in the stride to suspend their activities in Russia.
Those manifesting against the Russian military presence in Ukraine are also systematically exposed to fines, in accordance with a new article of the Administrative Code which prohibits public actions “discrediting the armed forces”. According to the Ria Novosti news agency, a resident of Siberia was the first victim of this new law: he was sentenced to 60,000 rubles (450 euros) for having called to demonstrate against the intervention in Ukraine.
In recent years, dozens of protesters have also been sentenced to severe prison sentences for “violence against the police”, a reason considered invented with all parts by number of NGOs.