According to the human rights organization Amnesty International, more than 5,900 people have been arrested during protests in Russia against the Ukraine war. Amnesty also criticizes the increasing censorship of the Russian media.
According to Amnesty International, more than 5,900 people across Russia have been arrested during protests against the invasion of Ukraine. According to Amnesty, the numbers come from the Russian human rights organization OVD-Info. The organization monitors demonstrations in Russia and provides information and legal assistance to those who are arrested. There have been protests by Russians against the war in at least 67 places in the past few days. On Sunday alone, at least 2,710 people were taken away during peace demonstrations in more than 50 cities, the OWD-Info said. However, the Russian security forces are brutally cracking down on demonstrators in many places.
In Saint Petersburg, where hundreds gathered in the city center on Sunday, police officers reportedly seized one by one protesters and dragged them into police vehicles – although the demonstration was peaceful and there were no clashes. Footage from Moscow showed police officers throwing several demonstrators to the ground before dragging them away. Marie Struthers, Amnesty’s Eastern Europe expert, criticized this warning. Russia is trampling on the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assemblies. The Kremlin is bent on stifling critical voices against the Ukraine war and is censoring public media. “Russian authorities are plunging deeper and deeper into repression as anti-war public opinion grows,” Struthers said. Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor had banned its media from using terms such as “attack”, Use “Invasion” and “Declare War”.
Media under threat of banAmnesty also criticized the Kremlin’s censorship of the media. Last Thursday, the Russian media regulator ordered the media to only use information from official state sources when reporting on the war. so amnesty. Among other things, the website of “Nastojashchee Vremya” was blocked on Saturday because of the dissemination of “unreliable, publicly important information” about the conflict wrote an anti-war letter. “Along with street protests, tens of thousands of Russians are signing open letters and petitions against the war, Celebrities and TV personalities also campaigned for peace. An online petition launched within hours of Russia’s attack on Ukraine beginning received more than 930,000 signatures in four days. The Kremlin, however, plays down popular opposition to the war and emphasizes that support for the invasion is much greater.
