In vladimir putin’s Russia, holding a blank piece of paper can land you in jail. A handful of such cases have been documented, in which people have been arrested at anti-war protests for carrying empty placards, deemed to be symbols against the invasion of Ukraine. One woman, who stood alone in Moscow’s Manezhnaya Square with a sheet saying “two words” (probably a reference to nyet voinye, “no to war” in Russian) was arrested within three seconds. At least 23 people have been arrested just for displaying anti-war symbols. Thirty-nine have been arrested for posts critical of the war on social media, where dissent has been widespread. Despite the crackdown, Russians continue to take to the streets.
The number of documented arrests at anti-war protests since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war last month crossed 15,000 on March 19th. OVD-Info, a human-rights organisation that provides legal aid and tracks the detentions, says these arrests have taken place in at least 168 locations across Russia. Most people were arrested on March 6th. Russians heeded calls from critics of Mr Putin including Alexei Navalny, a jailed opposition leader, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled ex-oligarch, to protest against the war in Ukraine. There were 5,497 documented arrests on that day alone, in 77 places across Russia.
No reliable data are available on how many people continue to attend protests. But the number of arrests appears to have slowed. Between March 9th and 20th, there were 1,065 documented arrests, compared with 14,009 in the two weeks prior. Lower arrest numbers should perhaps not be surprising. Repression tactics are clearly in force: a spokesperson for OVD-Info says there is “a terrific and growing state pressure” on those opposing the war. Some protesters remain in jail and many others have fled abroad.
These arrest figures are all lower bounds. Without access to internal government tallies, should these even exist, the OVD-Info’s data is imperfect and probably understates the true extent of Mr Putin’s crackdown on dissent. As he pursues a military gamble abroad, Russia’s president appears to be taking no such chances at home, resorting as never before to paranoia and repression. ■
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