(Moscow) More than twenty people were arrested on Saturday in a Moscow park during a sit in against the Russian offensive in Ukraine, noted an AFP journalist.
Posted at 8:52
Arrests also took place in Saint Petersburg (north-west) during a similar rally, as part of a national action announced on social networks.
In Moscow, the sit in was planned in Zariadie Park, in the shadow of the Kremlin. Shortly after it began, police began arresting people sitting on park benches in the middle of a snowstorm. “No to the war in Ukraine! shouted a young woman arrested by the police.
More than 30 police vans were deployed around the park and near the red Kremlin walls, according to the AFP journalist.
the sit in against the Russian military operation in Ukraine was announced on social networks for Saturday by activists opposed to the Russian offensive in around thirty cities across Russia, from Vladivostok (Far East) to Sochi (south).
The organizers also said in a statement that they wanted to protest against “the collapse of the Russian economy, against [le président russe Vladimir] Putin” and for the release of imprisoned opponent Alexei Navalny.
“Russia deserves peace, democracy and prosperity,” they wrote.
In St. Petersburg, about 40 people were present in the place designated for the sit in in the city center, without it being possible to say whether they were demonstrators, according to an AFP journalist.
Nevertheless, up to 25 people were arrested, she found.
“I came just to stand. To somehow express my protest against what is happening,” Galina Sedova, 50, told AFP, adding that she was “afraid to actively protest.”
Violating the ban on demonstrations put in place by the Russian authorities, pacifists gather from time to time in Russia to denounce the military intervention in Ukraine.