Anti-war protesters allege that they have been tortured in detention; some have now fled the country fearing consequences. And many who have put up posts on social media calling out Russian authorities have been fired
Police officers detain a woman during a protest against Russian military action in Ukraine, in Manezhnaya Square in central Moscow. AFP
An editor who interrupted a Russia TV show has become the face of the anti-war protests in the country. Holding a sign that says “No War”, Marina Ovsyannikova ran on the set of a programme being aired on the state-controlled Channel 1. Since then Ovsyannikova has been fined 30,000 roubles by a court in Moscow for the “spontaneous” act of rebellion.
However, trouble is not yet for Ovsyannikova. She could face further action as Russian authorities are further accusing her breaching rules and “hoolganism”. “I am very worried for the safety of my children, first and foremost,” she told ABC’s This Week, even as she said that she has turned down the offer of asylum from French president Emmanuel Macron.
But Ovsyannikova is not alone in voicing her anti-war opinion. There are thousands of Russians who are speaking out against the so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine. What happens to them?
14,000 arrests since 24 February
Since Moscow’s invasion, the demonstrations against Russian authorities are growing in number. According to independent monitoring group OVD-Info, at least 756 people have been arrested by the police for protests in 37 Russian cities. About half of them are in Moscow.
More than 14,000 arrests have been made since the start of the attack on 24 February. While some have been released, about 170 have been remanded in custody.
On March 4, Russia passed a law which criminalised independent war reporting and protests, with penalities that earn dissidents up to 15 years in prison.
Tortured in detention
A report on the non-profit Human Rights Watch website says that peaceful anti-war protests are ill-treated, abused, and tortured in detention. The police have been accused of using excessive force against protesters while cracking down on them.
OVD-Info reports at least 34 cases in which police beat up protesters. Videos of police inaction have been circulating on social media. A video uploaded on Telegram shows police officers beating a man with batons and then appearing to administer electric shocks to them, reports HRW. Detainees have uploaded evidence on social media displaying cuts, bruises, and electric burns.
Novaya Gazeta, whose editor won a Nobel Peace Prize, published an audio where three policemen were questioning a 22-year-old woman protester from Moscow. One policeman reportedly punched her in the head and threatened to shoot her.
In another audio uploaded by the newspaper, an unidentified officer reportedly says, “Putin told us to kill you all.”
Those detained were denied access to their lawyers for hours.
Be quiet or be fired
Protesting on the streets comes with a huge risk, but even those voicing their opinion online are silenced. Some have lost their jobs; others have been expelled from universities.
Kamran Manafly, a teacher from Moscow, was instructed how to talk to students about the conflict. Not happy about it, he wrote a post on Instagram, which he was instructed to delete, reports BBC.
Manafly said he was ready to resign, but when he went to the school to pick up his belongings, he was not allowed to enter. He met the school’s headmaster the next day and was informed that had been “fired for immoral behavior” at work.
Manafly’s is not an isolated case. According to the BCC report, several Russians have been asked to delete anti-war posts or resign. Anna Levadnaya, a paediatrician and an Instagram influencer with over two million followers, was publicly shamed by her employers and asked to tender her resignation for writing that she “didn’t choose aggression”.
Fearing punishment for participating in protests, hundreds are fleeing the country. A liberal political activist, who is now in Tiblisi, Georgia told NPR that he left the country after neighbours alerted him of masked policemen waiting outside his house. “I had no chance to tell anyone I was leaving, because it was too dangerous,” he said.
It’s not going to get any easier for those in the country who are not ready to toe the Kremlin’s line.
Lashing out at those who are “mentally” aligned with the West, Russian president Vladimir Putin had said last week, “The Russian people will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and simply spit them out like a gnat that accidentally flew into their mouths.”
With inputs from agencies
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