Only journalists arrested at mobilized soldiers' wives' protests in Moscow – ISW
Photo: Russian media
To stifle any possible resurgence of a broader public movement in support of Russian soldiers and against the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin censored a protest by wives of conscripted soldiers in Moscow on February 3.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported this.
Members of the Russian public movement "The Way Home" are said to have laid flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow before holding a protest in nearby Manezhnaya Square to mark the 500th day since the partial mobilization announced by Putin in September 2022.
Russian state media mostly did not cover this event but reported that the Moscow prosecutor's office warned against attending the protest, most likely referring to the "Way Home" action.
At the same time, opposition Russian mass media covered this protest in detail, in which, according to estimates, about 200 people took part. They reported that Moscow police detained 27 people, most of whom were Russian and foreign journalists.
Opposition media also reported that the authorities later released the detainees without charge and that several demonstrators gathered outside the police station to rally for the liberation of all those arrested.
The Russian police allowed the "Way Home" protesters to later visit Putin's campaign headquarters and write a handwritten appeal to him asking him to return the mobilized soldiers home. However, the headquarters allowed only small groups of protesters to do so and strictly limited the media's access to cover the process.
"Russian law enforcement likely deliberately detained journalists rather than protestors to limit reporting of the event while depriving the Way Home organization of a platform on which to martyr itself in the information space over the arrests of its members," ISW analysts believe.
As noted in the report, the Soviet leadership saw firsthand the influence of social movements of relatives of Russian soldiers in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Therefore, the Kremlin likely aims to pre-emptively censor and discredit such movements before they can gain such influence, the ISW report said.
"Putin may have learned from the Soviet Union's prior failure to completely censor soldiers' relatives and changed tactics, instead using limited censorship and discreditation to keep these movements from building momentum," ISW said.
As reported, Russian President Vladimir Putin began mobilization in Russia in the fall of 2022 against the background of the failures of the Russian army in Ukraine. According to official data, 300,000 people were sent to the military.
From February 24, 2022, to February 4, 2024, the Defense Forces of Ukraine eliminated about 388,750 Russian invaders, 810 of them on the last day.
For reference:
As reported, on December 3, during a regular protest against the mobilization, which took place near the walls of the Kremlin, the Moscow police detained about 25 people, including media workers.
One of the largest protest actions since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine took place in the Russian Federation: protesters came to the defense of a local activist.
Rubryka previously wrote that in September 2022, on September 24, Russian cities held protests against the war in Ukraine and the forced mobilization of Russians.
Also, in Ufa, the capital of the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, approximately 1500 people gathered on Salavat Yulayev's central square. Riot police detained several participants of the action.
As reported, since the beginning of the war against Ukraine, law enforcement officers in the Russian Federation have registered 220 cases of attacks and arson of military commissariats and other government facilities, as well as 184 cases of railroad sabotage.
