For several weeks, these women have been demanding the return of their husbands’ frontlines. Until now, the authorities have been careful not to repress this protest movement.
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On Saturday February 3, Russian police arrested at least twenty journalists during a rally organized on Red Square by wives of soldiers fighting in Ukraine who were demanding the return of their husbands. An AFP videographer arrested during this demonstration specified that around 20 to 25 journalists, including foreign reporters, were with him in a police van en route to a police station in the capital.
For several weeks, wives of soldiers mobilized to fight in Ukraine have regularly found themselves under the walls of the Kremlin, as a sign of protest. The anger of relatives of the reservists mobilized on the orders of Vladimir Putin in September 2022 is a sensitive subject for the authorities, who have until now been careful not to repress this emerging rebellious movement.
During other demonstrations of this type in Moscow, the police refrained from intervening, although any start of protest is usually severely repressed in Russia. The activism of mobilized women has been largely ignored by Russian state media, while the Kremlin is keen to display an image of unity around Vladimir Putin before his inevitable re-election in the March 2024 presidential election.
