The Russian state police has detained about 50 Russian citizens who allegedly planned to protest against their country’s military assault on Ukraine on Sunday.
According to OVD-Info, an independent Russian human rights media project, a number of Russians stood in certain parts of Moscow to protest on June 12, which is celebrated as Russia Day. Russian police arrested political activists, journalists, and citizens who attended protests against military aggression in Ukraine.
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The authorities then asked the detainees to sign a “warning about the inadmissibility of illegal actions” before release. Others stayed in custody for about five hours. The police took fingerprints and pictures of the arrested protesters, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
Police arrested Ivan Romanov for singing a Ukrainian folk song on Pushkin Square. Russian authorities also detained Dmitriy Koval for holding a poster in support of political prisoners in Tverskaya Square. Koval’s poster had read “Freedom to political prisoners! Having an independent opinion is not a crime”.
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Aleksey Abdullin was holding an anti-war poster near Gostinniy Dvor when the police arrested him. Tatiana Lomakina also held a solitary picket against the war in Ukraine when the authorities detained her.
Detainees were accused of discrediting the actions of the Russian army.
These individual protests are growing in Russia as the country continues its military assault on Ukraine. OVD-Info has recorded 15,451 detentions in connection with anti-war actions since the beginning of the war in Ukraine on February 24.
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