Al Jazeera :
More than 2,500 people have been detained in 49 cities across Russia at protests against President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to an independent Russian-based protest monitor.
The OVD-Info protest monitoring group said on Sunday the arrests were in cities including the Pacific port city of Vladivostok and the Siberian city of Irkutsk. Opposition activists posted videos showing protests in other cities.
It was not possible to independently verify the information, but various social media posts purportedly showed protests in different parts of Russia on Sunday. There was no immediate comment by Russian authorities, but on Saturday, the interior ministry had warned that any attempt to hold unauthorised protests would be prevented and the organisers would be held to account.
At least 2,502 arrests on Sunday brought the total number of people held in anti-war protests since the invasion began on February 24 to more than 10,000, OVD-Info said.
A video posted on social media showed a protester in a square in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk shouting: “No to war! How are you not ashamed?” before two policemen arrested him.
Police used loudspeakers to tell a small group of protesters in Khabarovsk: “Respected citizens, you are taking part in an unsanctioned public event. We demand you disperse.”
Al Jazeera was not able to independently verify the post.
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny had called for protests on Sunday across Russia and the rest of the world against the invasion.
“Because of Putin, Russia now means war for many people,” Navalny said on Friday. “That is not right: It was Putin and not Russia that attacked Ukraine.”
About 2,000 people attended an anti-war protest in Kazakhstan’s biggest city Almaty, unverified videos posted on social media showed.
The crowd shouted slogans including “no to war” and waved Ukrainian flags.
Activists put blue and yellow balloons in the hand of a statue of Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin towering over the small square where the rally took place.
Putin ordered what he calls a “special military operation” to defend Russian-speaking communities against persecution in Ukraine and to prevent the United States from using Ukraine to threaten Russia.
The West has called his arguments a baseless pretext for war and imposed sanctions that aim to cripple the Russian economy. The US, United Kingdom and some other NATO members have supplied arms to Ukraine.
Putin’s approval ratings have jumped in Russia since the invasion, according to Moscow-based pollsters.
The president’s rating rose six percentage points to 70 percent in the week ending February 27, according to state pollster VsTIOM. The FOM pollster, which provides research for the Kremlin, said Putin’s rating had risen seven percentage points to 71 percent in the same week.
A number of international broadcasters, including the BBC, CNN, Italy’s RAI and Germany’s ARD and ZDF, have said they will stop reporting from Russia after its parliament passed a draft law punishing the publication of what it calls “fake news” about its invasion with jail terms of up to 15 years.
Award-winning independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta says it will also stop reporting on the war in Ukraine in light of the new law., while several other Russian news outlets have suspended operations.
