Russia is conscripting arrested protesters into the army
More than 1,300 people were arrested across Russia on Wednesday for taking part in nationwide anti-war protests – while some are being directly recruited into the army, according to a monitoring group.
The protests came after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial mobilization,” where 300,000 reservists will be called up to fight in Ukraine.
Images and video showed police beating protesters in multiple cities, while footage showed some protesters at a Moscow demonstration being arrested by police as authorities in St. Petersburg tried to hold back a crowd calling for “no mobilization” outside Isakiivskiy Cathedral.
Police arrested protesters in 38 cities in Russia on Wednesday, according to figures released shortly after midnight by the independent monitoring group OVD-Info.
The group’s spokeswoman, Maria Kuznetsova, said that at least four police stations in Moscow, some of the protesters arrested by riot police were being recruited directly into the Russian military.
One of the arrested was threatened with criminal prosecution for refusing to be recruited, she said. The government has said that the penalty for refusing conscription is now 15 years in prison. Of the more than 1,300 people arrested nationwide, more than 500 were in Moscow and more than 520 in St. Petersburg, according to OVD-Info.
Just over half of the arrested protesters whose names were released are women, OVD-Info also said, making it the largest anti-government protest by the number of women in recent history. However, the watchdog specified that the full extent of the arrests remains unknown.
It has also been reported on this matter where he said that the people arrested protesting against the war, are accepting calls to go to war, and even published some images that appear to be the summons.