Russians continue to protest the war, despite Putin's oppression

Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor of Russia's Channel One, broke into the March 14th broadcast of the evening news with a sign that read: “Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here.”

Image: Channel One

The Guardian reports that Ovsyannikova also released a pre-recorded video where she states her embarrassment for working making 'Kremlin propaganda' for years. The video was made public through the OVD-Info human rights group.

Image: OVD-Info

“What is happening in Ukraine is a crime and Russia is the aggressor,” she said, per The Guardian. “The responsibility of this aggression lies on the shoulders of only one person: Vladimir Putin”.

Pictured: Graffiti on a Moscow street with the message 'No war'.

People from all over the world have come out to protest Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and show solidarity with the Ukrainian people. In Paris, the Monument à la République has recently been draped in the Ukrainian blue and yellow.

While in London, squatters have taken over the empty houses of some Russian oligarchs with the intention of serving as a home for Ukrainian refugees.

To the surprise of many, public demonstrations have also been taking place inside Russia, despite government repression.

Some of the most recent protests, called by jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, have even dared to stand in front of the gates of the Kremlin.

In a video that has gone viral on social media and that has been shared by news outlets like The Huffington Post, a woman holding a small sign that simply says 'two words' is arrested outside the Kremlin.

A few seconds later, another woman steps in to defend Russia's military intervention of Ukraine… only to be arrested too.

In another video, shared by Russian news outlet Meduza, a person in Nizhny Novgorod is seen detained just for holding a blank sign.

Image: Meduza

Independent human rights monitoring group OVD-Info reports that around 15,000 people have been arrested across Russia for opposing the war in Ukraine.

Pictured: A person in Moscow with a sign that says “No war. Putin, go away”

These protests have gone from major cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg to smaller, remote populations in faraway places such as Siberia.

Here you can see a man being detained in Voronezh, near the border with Ukraine, in a rally against the war.

Russia’s Minister of Internal Affairs, as quoted by Al Jazeera, declared that the police had detained 3,500 people during one weekend alone.

Pictured: A member of the security forces detains a man in St. Petersburg

In some cases, these anti-war rallies were countered by pro-government pro-war nationalist demonstrations.

The protests have been dispersed by the police for the most part. The Russian Minister of Internal Affairs threatened that anyone attempting to hold illegal demonstrations would face consequences, according to The Guardian.

Reuters says that people have been detained in at least 56 cities.

Among those arrested was Holocaust survivor Elena Osipova, seen here taken away by two police officers in St. Petersburg.

Among other excuses used by security forces is that these demonstrations were breaking Covid-19 regulations.

The Russian police even have established checkpoints in several urban centers, revising people’s phones.

The government has also cracked down on independent news outlets for referring to Russia’s actions in Ukraine as “war”.

The radio station Echo of Moscow and the independent television channel Dozhd were taken off the air due to their coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Pictured: The offices of the Echo of Moscow.

Some journalists could face sentences of up to 15 years under charges of spreading false information under a recently approved law.

Meanwhile, BBC, CNN, Bloomberg, and other major news outlets are calling back their correspondents, arguing that their journalists can no longer report news safely and freely from Russia.

“The screws are being fully tightened. Essentially we are witnessing military censorship,” Maria Kuznetsova, a spokeswoman from OVD-Info, declared to Reuters.

The jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was quoted by The Guardian, pointing out that Putin’s actions do not reflect on how the average person feels about Ukraine.

Pictured: Navalny during his arrest in January 2021.

“Because of Putin, Russia now means war for many people,” Navalny declared. “That is not right: it was Putin and not Russia that attacked Ukraine.”

“Whether Russians actually support the hideous war that Putin has waged against Ukraine is a matter of utmost political importance,” writes Navalny on social media.

“The answer to this question will largely define Russia’s place in the history of the 21st century”.