Flowers laid down

Protest by soldiers’ wives: Arrests in Russia

Police in Moscow and the megacity of Yekaterinburg have arrested several people during protests by members of the Russian military mobilized for the war in Ukraine. The civil rights platform OWD-Info reported on Saturday that five people were taken away by plainclothes police in Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains during the laying of flowers at a soldiers' memorial.

According to information from the internet portal Sota, the police in Moscow took two people to the police station. Both journalists have since been released.

Activists lay flowers on monuments
The protest action was called for by the "Putj domoi" ("Way Home") movement, which was initiated by the wives of mobilized Russians. In seven cities, activists laid flowers at monuments to the fallen Soviet soldiers of the Second World War. In Moscow, they used the tomb of the unknown soldier on the Kremlin wall for the tenth protest action against the war against Ukraine ordered by Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin. A long queue of people with mainly red carnations formed in front of the memorial.

There had already been protests by soldiers' wives at the beginning of February - there were also reportedly arrests:

The police were on the scene with many forces. There was also a large police contingent not far from Red Square, as a reporter from the German Press Agency reported.

Police warned against participation in demonstration
The authorities had warned against taking part in the protest. "Due to the dissemination of calls on the Internet, including on social networks, to participate in a mass action in the center of Moscow, the Moscow prosecutor's office considers it necessary to warn of the inadmissibility of violating the law," it said in a press release from the authority. Police officers specifically sought out journalists before the event in order to dissuade them from reporting.