Don’t look now, but anti-war protests IN Russia — BY Russians — are rattling Vladimir Putin into a frenzy.
Top News Today
When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the West acted swiftly to sever ties with Putin and Moscow. The EU, the US, and the UK immediately implemented severe sanctions against Russian banks, institutions, and individuals, including Putin himself. Air space across Europe was instantly closed to flights from Russia. Western companies including Apple, Netflix, American Express, and General Motors all cut ties with Russia and divested from Russian companies.
Because of these acts, the ruble plummeted and Russian markets were sent into free fall. Prominent Russians including the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor-in-chief of NOVAYA GAZETA Dmitry Muratov and popular rapper Oxxxymiron each spoke out against the war. Even the oligarchs Oleg Deripaska and Mikhail Fridman broke their silence and denounced the Russian invasion.
However, no sanction or statement from a rich and/or famous Russian has been more damning or more important than the anti-war protests from the Russian people.
Despite Putin’s insistence on framing his invasion as a rescue mission to save Russian speakers from Ukrainian neo-Nazis and drug dealers, young Russians, mostly in their 20s and 30s, as well as families, have risked their lives in unusual and unique acts of outrage and civil disobedience in defiance of the Ukraine war.
To date, at least 13,000 people have been arrested in about 150 Russian cities at anti-war protests. In fact, Sunday, March 6th proved to be the largest day of protests and arrests yet, where nearly 5,000 people were detained in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and 66 other Russian cities.
Nikita Stoopin, 22, was one of the protesters who was arrested for violating Article 20.2 of Russia’s Code of Administrative Offenses. In addition to participating in active protests, Stoopin was charged with taking to social media and posting an invitation for others to partake in a protest in Pushkinskaya Square.
“In principle, in Putin’s Russia, only nice people are arrested,” he said of his detention.
Watch as 77-year-old Russian citizen, Yelena Osipova, who survived the siege of Leningrad, is arrested for protesting against the Ukraine war.
In addition to active anti-war protests, more than 1.5 million people and organizations signed a petition against the war. Additionally, 1000+ Russian doctors, nurses, and paramedics signed an open letter to Putin urging him to end the war and seek peace.
“Everyone will scream in pain in the same language,” they wrote.
If that wasn’t enough, more than 17,000 Russians working in the arts and culture sector signed an open letter, saying “everything that has been done culturally over the past 30 years is now at risk.”
In response to the anti-war protests, the Russian government instituted a full-blown crackdown on dissent. They outlawed the use of the words “war” and “invasion” (in Russian), perpetrated DDoS attacks on news sites, and blocked access to social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Police closed off central gathering places including Pushkinskaya Square and Red Square in Moscow, as well as Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg. Additionally, state propaganda outlets went into overdrive with claims that the Ukrainians are using their guns against each other, that Russian troops are carrying out a necessary humanitarian mission, and that America is commanding Ukraine’s military units.
In spite of all this, the Russian protesters have proven to be undeterred and have placed their lives on the line for peace.
Ralliers ignored the Russian crackdown against social media posts and took to Telegram chats and Instagram stories to announce their scattered and spontaneous meeting locations. Yet, for them, the risk of jail time or the loss of life was more than worth it.
“Police are putting 20 people in spaces where three people can sleep, so people have to stand all night,” said Maria Kuznetsova, the Press Secretary of OVD-Info, a human rights organization that defends the right to assembly by helping get arrested protesters out of prison. “They never had so many people to arrest, so they don’t have space.
“If you arrest an organizer, no one can say when the next protest will be,” Kuznetsova added. “But because now there is no organizer, [the authorities] don’t know how to deal with that.”
She concluded: “The scale of rallies is approaching a record since Putin came to power.”
And if that doesn’t say it’s a new day in Russia and that Vladimir Putin may be in deep trouble, nothing will!
OK WASSUP! discusses the Top News Today:
Putin is hit with anti-war protests.
NPR: Thousands of people turned out in cities across Russia this weekend to protest the war in Ukraine, risking arrest in a country where such demonstrations are illegal. Many of them were detained and some subjected torture as a result, according to an independent Russian human rights group. Police detained more than 4,640 protesters in 65 Russian cities on Sunday, according to the monitoring group OVD-Info. It says more than 13,000 Russians in 147 cities have been detained at anti-war rallies since Russia first invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. “At least 30 instances of protesters being beaten have been confirmed and it is likely that this number is much higher,” it wrote in an update on Sunday. “There are many videos on social networks in which police officers are seen beating anti-war protesters.” The group also cited reports of torture and mistreatment of detainees at police stations, saying some did… Read more »