Images and video showed police beating protesters in several cities, with footage showing scores of protesters at a demonstration in central Moscow being dragged away by police and authorities in St Petersburg trying to hold back a crowd chanting “no mobilization”. outside Isakiivskiy Cathedral. Police arrested protesters in 38 Russian cities on Wednesday, according to figures released shortly after midnight by the independent monitoring group OVD-Info. The group’s spokeswoman Maria Kuznetsova told CNN by phone that at least four police stations in Moscow, some of the protesters arrested by riot police, are being recruited directly into the Russian military. One of those arrested has been threatened with prosecution for refusing to be summoned, he said. The government said the punishment for refusing the plan is now 15 years in prison. Of the more than 1,300 people detained nationwide, more than 500 were in Moscow and more than 520 in St. Petersburg, according to OVD-Info. Just over half of the jailed protesters whose names were released are women, OVD-Info also reported, making it the largest anti-government protest by percentage of women in recent history. However, the warden clarified that the full scale of the arrests remains unknown. Nine journalists and 33 minors are also among those arrested, it said, adding that one of the minors was “brutally beaten” by law enforcement.
A wider mobilization?
The protests followed a speech by Putin on Wednesday morning in which he laid out a plan that lays out the stakes of his war in Ukraine, including for the Russian people, at a time when a surprise counterattack from Kyiv has retaken thousands of square miles of territory. and put Moscow on the back burner. Experts say Russia’s forces are significantly depleted. The announced “partial mobilization” will call up 300,000 reservists, according to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Putin said those with military experience would be subject to conscription and stressed that the decree — which has already been signed — was necessary to “protect our homeland, its sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Putin’s order appears to allow for a broader mobilization than he suggested in his speech. The first paragraph speaks of a “partial mobilization,” but does not define those who qualify as narrowly as the Russian leader did in his speech. Instead, it says the only people it doesn’t apply to are those who don’t qualify because of age, illness or incarceration. Ekaterina Schulmann, a Russian political scientist and fellow at the Chatham House think tank, told Telegram that while the decree “describes the mobilization as partial,” it “does not set any parameters of that partiality, whether territorial or categorical.” “According to this text anyone can be summoned except those working in the military-industrial complex who are exempt for the duration of their employment. the address, but not in the decree’. Russian human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov said the decree defined the mobilization “in the broadest terms”. “The president leaves it to the discretion of the Defense Minister. So in reality it is the Russian Defense Ministry that will decide who will be sent to war, from where and in what numbers,” Chikov said on Telegram. The ultimate significance of the apparent discrepancy is not yet clear. And it remains to be seen whether the Kremlin has the appetite for a wider mobilization of the general civilian population.
Protesters are calling for an end to the war
During his speech on Wednesday, Putin also raised the specter of nuclear weapons, saying he would use “all the means at our disposal” if he believed Russia’s “territorial integrity” was threatened. He also backed referendums on joining Russia that Russian-appointed leaders in four occupied Ukrainian regions announced they would hold this week. Anxiety among Russian citizens was evident on Wednesday, with travel agency websites showing a dramatic increase in demand for flights to places where Russians do not need visas. Flight sales websites indicate that direct flights to these countries are sold out at least until Friday. The protests, most of which appeared to draw a few dozen people, were another strong signal of the desperation felt by some. Dissent is usually quickly crushed in Russia, and authorities have placed further restrictions on free speech following the invasion of Ukraine. Footage on social media showed several protesters in Ulan-Ude in eastern Siberia holding signs reading “No to war! No to mobilization!” and “Our husbands, fathers and brothers don’t want to kill other husbands and fathers!” “We want our fathers, husbands and brothers to stay alive … and not leave their children orphans. Stop the war and don’t take our people!” said one protester. Video from Yekaterinburg in western Russia shows police fighting with several protesters. CNN could not independently verify the video from either city. Another video posted by a journalist from the Moscow online paper The Village shows dozens of people on Arbatskaya Street shouting “Let him go” as a man is dragged away. Moscow’s prosecutor’s office on Wednesday also warned citizens not to participate in protests or distribute information calling for participation — reminding people they could face up to 15 years in prison. When asked Thursday about reports of people detained at anti-war rallies who received conscription, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the practice “is not against the law. There is no violation of the law here.”
“Russia wants war”
Putin’s announcement of “partial mobilization” was condemned on Wednesday by Western leaders, many of whom met at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. In a rare joint statement, UK Prime Minister Liz Truss and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said they both agreed that Putin’s announcement of a partial mobilization of Russian citizens was a sign of “weakness”. European Union foreign ministers agreed in New York to push through a new round of sanctions against Russia, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters. Ukraine remained defiant of Putin’s announcement, with President Volodymyr Zelensky telling the United Nations General Assembly in a taped speech on Wednesday that Russia is “afraid of real (peace) negotiations” and pointing out what he called Russian “lies.” Russia “talks about talks but announces military mobilization,” Zelensky said. “Russia wants war.” On Thursday, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said Putin’s “partial mobilization” only strengthened the country’s support for Ukraine. French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornou said his country would continue its support to Ukraine in terms of weapons and training, but added that France needed cooperation within NATO to do so. Meanwhile, analysis by researchers from the Institute for the Study of War said the move would not have a noticeable impact on the immediate outcome of the war. The analysis said it will take weeks or months to bring reservists to combat readiness, that Russian reservists are “poorly trained to begin with,” and that the “deliberate phases” of deployment outlined by Russia’s defense minister are likely to exclude ” any sudden influx of Russian forces that could dramatically change the tide of the war.”
