More than 4,600 people were arrested this Sunday in some 60 locations in Russia for participating in unauthorized protests against the military intervention in Ukraine, said the NGO OVD-Info, which specializes in following demonstrations.
(Read here: Five scenarios for the end of the war between Russia and Ukraine)
According to Irina Volk, a spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of the Interior, the balance of people detained occurred after a series of unauthorized protests that took place in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and other Russian cities.
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According to that source, some 2,500 people demonstrated in Moscow, of which 1,700 were arrested, while another 1,500 participated in a similar protest in St. Petersburg, 750 of whom were arrested. The Interior spokeswoman said that another 1,200 people celebrated unauthorized demonstrations in other regions of Russiaof which 1,061 were arrested.
Despite intimidation by the authorities and the threat of prison sentences, the protests -limited- have been taking place daily for more than ten days in different cities. According to OVD-Info, more than 13,000 protesters have been detained in Russia since military operations began on February 24.
Russian opponent Alexei Navalni, a staunch opponent of the intervention in Ukraine and who is in prison, urged Russians to take to the streets every day to ask for peace.
The new law that represses “false information” about the activities of the Russian army in Ukraine indicates that, whoever commits the crime, will be subject to penalties ranging from fines to 15 years in prison. As a result, Russian and foreign media announced that they were suspending their activities in the territory.
the wide Putin’s crackdown on the media and social networks it signals the government’s determination to stifle any dissenting voices on the Ukraine conflict, even if that might mean cutting Russia’s internet network off from the rest of the world, experts say.
Systematically, the Kremlin has closed any Russian media that goes against it and most foreign media, as well as social networks and platforms – Tik Tok and Netflix joined this Sunday – suspended their activities in Russia.
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Putin intensified the fighting and bombing in Ukraine, mainly in the east and trying to seize Odessa, and insisted that he will maintain his so-called “special operation” until the resistance to the invasion ends and Kiev accepts the Russian demands.
This was communicated in a telephone conversation to several international leaders who this Sunday unsuccessfully asked for an immediate ceasefire, such as the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan; the Israeli prime minister, Nafatali Bennett, or the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
As reported by the Elysee, Putin has no intention of giving up the four objectives that he has set for himself with the invasion of Ukraine and will achieve them either by accepting Kiev or by going to war. Those four demands are what Moscow calls the “denazification” of Ukraine, its demilitarization and the recognition of the independence of Crimea – annexed by Moscow in 2014 – and Donbas (eastern Ukraine).
Despite a ceasefire agreement to create humanitarian corridors, the evacuation of the civilian population from the strategic city of Mariupol – a port that, if taken, would mark a turning point in the war because it would allow Russia to join forces from the peninsula of Crimea with which they enter the country from Donbas – failed on Sunday for the second day in a row due to Russian attacks.
The third round of negotiations between Moscow and Kiev will take place on Monday, according to a member of the Ukrainian delegation.
Both countries have met twice, the first time last Monday, in Belarus, without much progress. The second, on Thursday, on the border between Poland and Belarus, in the town of Belovezhskaya Pushcha. In this second round the combats were not stopped, but it was agreed to open humanitarian corridors for the civilian population, something that in practice little has been seen.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from AFP and EFE
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