Russians say “Stop the War” those who protest are arrested

#Russians say “Stop the War” but those who protest are arrested. Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova is under house arrest for protesting.

The Russian journalist who protested the Ukraine war live on TV was placed under house arrest where the Moscow court placed former Russian state TV editor Marina Ovsyannikova under house arrest for two months pending a trial related to her anti-war protest in July, the press service of the court said in a statement Thursday.

According to the statement, Ovsyannikova has been charged with spreading fake news about the Russian military and has been placed under house arrest until October 9.  The offence is punishable by up to 10 years in prison by Russian law.

Ovsyannikova, who previously worked as an editor for Russian state TV Channel One, took a dramatic stand against Russia’s war in Ukraine during a live broadcast in March when she broke into the studio and appeared behind a news anchor with a sign that said: “NO WAR.”

She previously told CNN she had already received three fines for a total sum of 120,000 rubles (about $1,970) for her anti-war statements, including for allegedly “discrediting” the army in her Facebook post she published on Russia Day.

In March 2022, when thousands of Russians thronged the streets to protest against the war and against the invasion of Ukraine., many were arrested and others were muffled.  After this, new reports that most Russians are in favour of the war, but no Russian voices are heard affirming the same.

Yelena Osipova 77-year-old peace activist has survived the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad,  familiar with incarceration during a military conflict. However, she was arrested on Wednesday by her own government when the two police officers took her in.   She is among thousands of Russians taking to the streets in protest against Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. ‘We have only one demand,’ says Maria, a veteran activist from Moscow: ‘Stop the war!’

On 24 February, the first day of the invasion, 1,700 anti-war protesters were detained across Russia, including three Radio Liberty journalists accredited by the authorities to report on demonstrations. In a video the reporters managed to smuggle out of jail, one is seen telling the police they are ‘official press’ and pleads for officers to stop twisting his arms and legs. On 2 March, Nika Samusik, a journalist for independent news source Sota, was detained for filming an anti-war rally in St Petersburg. After nine days of war, over 8,100 protesters had been detained, according to the Russian protest monitor OVD-Info.

The Russian authorities’ low tolerance for demonstrations and marches is old.  Organizing, or even just attending, protests can have serious consequences including arrest, fines – and even imprisonment.

Under Russia’s Code of Administrative Offences, calling for an unauthorized protest carries a potential fine of 10,000-20,000 roubles (Around $90-$185). Given that the average national monthly pay cheque was 56,500 roubles in 2021, this is a big penalty. In addition, the law is interpreted punitively: even a single person carrying an anti-war poster counts as an unauthorized rally. ‘Just posting “stop the war” on Twitter is considered an illegal protest,’ says a journalist in Vladivostok.

Persistent protesters – a definition that can mean as little as attending two rallies – face fines of up to 300,000 roubles, 30 days in prison or 200 hours of forced labour. ‘The authorities say taking part in demonstrations is akin to involvement in an extremist organization’, one protester tells me. ‘And yet we will continue to fight for peace,’ she says.

The authorities say taking part in demonstrations is akin to involvement in an extremist organization, and yet we will continue to fight for peace’

Bravely, they protest and one young woman in Moscow explains that she continues to take to the streets ‘because a bloody war is being waged in our name and we weren’t even consulted’. She adds: ‘Our rights are openly and illegally violated by a government that does not respect its people. And we protest because we do not want to be socially, politically, and economically isolated from the world – we want freedom of speech and a choice over our future.’

For many protesters, now is a turning point for Russia as well as Ukraine. ‘We want to prevent any more victims of this war,’ says one Moscow protester. ‘We must stop Putin imposing martial law that would cut us off from all independent information, shut our borders, ban protests, and allow the authorities to conscript our young men.’

On 26 February, Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor prohibited domestic media from using the words ‘war’, ‘invasion’ or ‘assault’ to describe Putin’s aggression against Ukraine. For violating this order, Roskomnadzor took the country’s last independent broadcasters Ekho Moscow and TV Dozhd off the air on 1 March, blocking access to their websites. On 4 March, media services by BBC Russia, Radio Liberty and Meduza were restricted. Access to social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Google is also tightening, deterring protesters from sharing information and organizing action.

For Putin, control of information is important, as it is clear those protesting his butchery in Ukraine are largely younger Russians who rely on independent news sources. ‘The majority of Russians watching state television believe Kremlin propaganda and support Putin and his army,’ says one activist. ‘Younger, more educated Russians are not brainwashed by state TV and understand what is happening. They are shocked and and helpless. They know there is nothing they can do to stop the madness, but they cannot remain at home and pretend everything is normal. They go to the streets knowing they will be beaten, arrested and thrown into jail because there is nothing else they can do.’

The experience of Belarus shows that mass demonstrations can be stifled with violence’
A woman protesting in Moscow says demonstrators are ‘willing to risk everything for the sake of freedom’. And it is true that the cost of participating in protests is high. ‘Demonstrators risk being fired from their jobs or expelled from university,’ explains a reporter for a Vladivostok media outlet in Russia’s Far East.

Reacting to last year’s protests against the jailing of opposition activist Alexei Navalny, firms fearing the Kremlin’s wrath banned employees from attending rallies. The jailing of Navalny and the banning of his Anti-Corruption Foundation for ‘extremism’ in June 2021 removed the last opposition institution capable of quickly organizing mass demonstrations across Russia.

But although Russian protests against the invasion of Ukraine are smaller and less organized than those against the war in the Donbas in 2014, they are more widespread – and they may still grow. Russian celebrities, who have generally stay away from speaking on controversial political topics since the Kremlin took over control of Russia’s airwaves in the early 2000s, are publishing anti-war messages online.

Furthermore, protesters are increasingly sharing news of detentions on messaging services like Telegram, which are also becoming a source of information about the time and place of rallies that is difficult for the authorities to control. Activists are additionally working to establish lines of communication with the wider population, especially over the economic cost of sanctions and the number of Russian casualties.

Editor-in-Chief of Novaya Gazeta and Noble Prize winner Dmitri Murakov stated ‘the future is dead.’ Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza said, ‘This is not the Russian people’s war, this is yet another illegal war by an unelected, irresponsible, and frankly deranged dictator in the Kremlin.’