At least 1,386 people were arrested in Russia in protests held on Wednesday against the partial mobilization of citizens decreed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to wage war in Ukraine, a non-governmental organization (NGO) said Thursday.
“At least 1,386 people were arrested in 38 cities,” the independent organization OVD-Info, which tracks arrests and has already been declared a “foreign agent” by Russian authorities, said on the Telegram social network.
As of Wednesday afternoon, OVD-Info had reported that more than 1,113 people had already been detained in protests in 38 Russian cities.
The human rights organization reported detainees in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Ufa, Krasnoyarsk, Chelyabinsk, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Yakutsk, Ulan-Ude, Arkhangelsk, Korolev, Voronezh, Zheleznogorsk, Izhevsk, Tomsk, Salavat, Tyumen, Volgograd. , Petrozavodsk, Samara, Surgut, Smolensk, Belgorod and other cities.
According to OVD-Info, the police acted violently against the demonstrators and among those detained were several journalists.
The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office has warned that organization and participation in illegal actions will be punished with up to 15 years in prison.
The dissemination of calls to participate in illegal actions or to carry out other illegal actions on social networks, as well as making appeals to minors to participate in illegal actions, will also be penalized administratively or criminally.
According to the latest data from OVD-Info, 509 people were detained in Moscow and at least 541 in St. Petersburg, the country’s second largest city.
On Wednesday, the Russian president stated that the Defense Ministry would determine the number of people conscripted for active military service, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a televised interview that 300,000 reservists with relevant combat experience will initially be mobilized and service.
In addition to calling protests, Russia has also seen a massive exodus of citizens since Putin ordered the army to invade Ukraine nearly seven months ago.
In his address to the country on Wednesday, announcing a partial mobilization of reservists, Vladimir Putin also made a veiled nuclear threat to Russia’s enemies in the West.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine has already caused the flight of more than 13 million people -more than six million internally displaced persons and more than 7.4 million to European countries-, according to the most recent data from the UN, which places this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the international community in general, which has responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political sanctions on Russia. and economic. .
The UN presented as confirmed since the beginning of the war 5,916 civilian deaths and 8,616 wounded, highlighting that these figures are far below the real ones.
Source: TSF
