More than 680 people were arrested this Saturday in new protests against the partial mobilization decreed on Wednesday by Russian President Vladimir Putin to reinforce troops in Ukraine, according to independent organizations.
“As of 6:51 p.m. in Moscow (4:51 p.m. in Lisbon) 689 people in 30 cities had already been arrested,” said the OVD-Info organization, which tracks arrests in Russia.
The largest number of arrests took place in Moscow, where police forces had arrested 345 people at the time.
In the Russian capital, the authorities mobilized a large police force that acted preventively and arrested several people who were passing through the place where the demonstration was scheduled, according to the EFE agency.
“Why are you taking me? I’m going to the subway station,” a young woman said to the policemen who were escorting her to a police van, getting in response: “Come on, otherwise it will be worse!”
In St. Petersburg, the country’s second largest city, there were 129 detainees and the police used batons, according to local media.
The protest was called by the opposition youth movement Vesná (Spring) under the slogan “Assembly of women in black”.
This was the second day of protests against the mobilization ordered by Putin, who justified it with the need to defend the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In the previous protest, which took place on Thursday, some 1,400 people were arrested across the country.
Source: TSF
