Thousands Were Detained in Anti-War Protests Across Russia

Jonathan Franklin / NPR

A person is detained during an anti-war protest, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Yekaterinburg, Russia March 6, 2022. (photo: Reuters) 06 March 22

Russians in dozens of cities across the country have staged anti-war demonstrations, following a call by advisers close to jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

As of Sunday, the independent OVD-Info monitoring group reports over 2,500 were detained across 49 cities, with more than 800 in Moscow and more than 380 in St. Petersburg.

"The screws are being fully tightened -- essentially we are witnessing military censorship," Maria Kuznetsova, OVD-Info's spokesperson, told Reuters.

Since protests against Russia's invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, nearly 11,000 people have been detained across Russia, according to the group.

Given the number of protests, there was a heavy presence of special police forces patrolling near the Kremlin on Sunday, with Red Square sealed off. A similar scene played out near Palace Square in St. Petersburg — which has seen repeated crowds protest the war.

EXPLORE THE DISQUS SETTINGS: Up at the top right of the comments section your name appears in red with a black down arrow that opens to a menu. Explore the options especially under Your Profile and Edit Settings. On the Edit Settings page note the selections on the left side that allow you to control email and other notifications. Under Profile you can select a picture or other graphic for your account, whatever you like. COMMENT MODERATION: RSN is not blocking your comments, but Disqus might be. If you have problems use our CONTACT PAGE and let us know. You can also Flag comments that are seriously problematic.

rsn / send to friend

form code