According to activists, demonstrations against partial mobilization in Russia are nationwide more than 1000 people arrested been. There were at least 1,251 arrests during spontaneous protests in at least 38 cities on Wednesday, said the organization OVD-Info, which documents arrests in Russia. There are the largest protests in Russia since the demonstrations that broke out at the end of February after the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine had given.
Journalists from the AFP news agency observed dozens of arrests in the capital Moscow and in the second largest city, St. Petersburg, in the evening. At least 50 people were arrested on a shopping street in central Moscow, AFP reporters observed. In downtown St. Petersburg, police filled an entire bus with detainees.
The demonstrators shouted “No to war” and “No to mobilization”. “Everyone is afraid,” said protester Vasily Fedorov in St. Petersburg. “I am for peace and I don’t want to have to shoot.” But in Russia it is “very dangerous” to take to the streets for these demands – “otherwise there would have been many more people”. “Why are you serving Putin? A man who has sat on his throne for 20 years,” another protester shouted at police officers. “I’m afraid for myself and for my brother, who is 25 years old and did his military service,” said student Oksana Sidorenko. “He can be drafted.”