Anti-mobilisation protests in Russia: hundreds of protesters detained, some beaten by security forces

ROMAN PETRENKO, KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO – SATURDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2022, 19:08

Protests against the war in Ukraine and the forced mobilisation of Russians have been taking place in Russian cities, and hundreds of people have been detained.

Source: OVD-Info, an independent media project focusing on human rights and political persecutions in Russia; Meduza, a Latvia-based Russian media outlet; Novaya Gazeta. Europa; Kommersant

Details: According to OVD-Info, as of 19:03 on 24 September, more than 730 people have been detained in 32 cities across Russia.

345 people are known to have been detained in Moscow and 129 in St Petersburg.

Novaya Gazeta. Europa reports that an anti-mobilisation rally is taking place at Chistye Prudy [a large pond in central Moscow].

Arrests began almost immediately. Protesters attempted to free the detainees.

A young woman in a wheelchair came to the protest. She was holding a poster saying "Do you want to be like me?" The media reported that she was not detained.

Protesters in Moscow's Zaryadye Park, however, were beaten by security forces.

In St Petersburg, protesters against the war and mobilisation gathered on Sennaya Square and marched along Sadova Street. Kommersant reported that riot police blocked the procession and began to detain people using stun guns and batons.

Protesters came out onto Nevsky Prospekt and chanted, "Putin to the trenches!"

Background:

• The Kremlin-appointed authorities in occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson oblasts and the city of Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia Oblast) announced on 23 September that they had started referendums on merging the captured territories of Ukraine with Russia.
• The Office of the President of Ukraine assured Russia and its accomplices in the occupied territories of Ukraine that sham referendums will not let the occupiers legitimise the seizure of Ukrainian lands.
• In Alchevsk, the Russian occupying authorities take into account even the "votes" of those who are either in captivity or have died, as Serhii Haidai, Head of the Oblast Military Administration, said.

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