{"id":26581,"date":"2022-03-07T14:37:49","date_gmt":"2022-03-07T19:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=26581"},"modified":"2022-03-15T10:18:35","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T14:18:35","slug":"russian-anti-war-movement-takes-shape-on-the-streets-and-on-screens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=26581","title":{"rendered":"Russian anti-war movement takes shape on the streets \u2013 and on screens"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION<\/p>\n

An article by Pauline Rouquette in France 24<\/a><\/p>\n

Thousands of Russians have taken to the streets in protest against the invasion of Ukraine, with more than 6500 demonstrators arrested as of Tuesday, according to the\u00a0OVD-Info human rights group, which tracks political arrests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nA person holds a sign during a protest against Russian invasion of Ukraine in Moscow on February 27, 2022.\u00a0\u00a9 Evgenia Novozhenina, Reuters <\/center><\/p>\n

And despite a crackdown\u00a0by the\u00a0Russian\u00a0authorities, opposition to Moscow\u2019s war in\u00a0Ukraine\u00a0is gaining support. While some continue to demonstrate\u00a0publicly, others\u00a0are setting up rear bases on the Internet and circumventing restrictions by using social networks, encrypted messaging and VPN servers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not afraid,\u00a0I went out alone,\u201d\u00a0a user named Stanislav\u00a0wrote on Twitter. The message is accompanied with a photo of him protesting on a street in the town of Azov in the western Russian oblast of Rostov. The\u00a030-year-old holds\u00a0a sign that reads “#\u041d\u0415\u0422\u0412\u041e\u0419\u041d\u0415”\u00a0(No War) in\u00a0large black letters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fear of repression has meant that only a minority of Russians are publicly expressing their opposition to the invasion. However, the anti-war movement is gathering support on the Internet, mainly through social networks and encrypted messaging services such as Telegram and Signal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Twitter, the hashtag #\u042f\u043f\u0440\u043e\u0442\u0438\u0432\u0412\u043e\u0439\u043d\u044b\u00a0(I’m against the war) was trending in Russia\u00a0on Tuesday.\u00a0\u201cThis has been the case since the beginning of the war,\u201d Stanislav told\u00a0FRANCE 24. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Discretion when faced with repression\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most of the opposition seems to be\u00a0fomenting\u00a0behind screens\u00a0since, under Vladimir Putin, to oppose the war out on the streets risks arrest and conviction.\u00a0This is reflected\u00a0in the daily figures released by\u00a0OVD-Info<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The NGO told FRANCE\u00a024 that it tracks the number of people arrested at anti-war rallies \u2013 not the number of participants.\u00a0Nearly a week after the start of the Russian invasion, the numbers are already significant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have never seen such a large number of detainees per day,\u201d\u00a0said Grigory Durnovo, an analyst for the group.\u00a0\u201cWe counted at least 6,489 detainees in five days. This is enough to show us the number of people willing to go out on the streets and express their views,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Facebook post on Tuesday by the NGO mentions more than 3,100 arrests in Moscow, more than 2,000 in St. Petersburg, about 100 in Yekaterinburg\u00a0and a few dozen in other, less populated cities across the country. <\/p>\n

While the arrests have not prevented thousands of Russians from defying the law\u00a0to\u00a0express their opposition to the war,\u00a0the vast majority prefer to maintain a low profile. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Durnovo attributed this to a wave of repression seen in 2021, notably with the closure of celebrated\u00a0human rights group Memorial<\/a>,\u00a0as well as the criminal prosecution of people who participated in\u00a0protests earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Twitter, Signal\u00a0and\u00a0Telegram:\u00a0the backbone of the anti-war movement\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

But protesters still find ways\u00a0to express their opposition to the war while remaining under the radar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Contacts between protesters are mainly on Twitter and Telegram,” says Stanislav, who depicts them as networks of solidarity.\u00a0Members on these groups share information from independent media (including the online TV channel Dojd), relay petitions and support protesters arrested by the police.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe help them pay fines and also find lawyers to help them,\u201d\u00a0he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Continued in right column)<\/p>\n

(Click here for a version of this article in French<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Questions related to this article:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n 
\n Can the peace movement help stop the war in the Ukraine?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

How can we be sure to get news about peace demonstrations?<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Continued from left column)<\/p>\n

According to the OVD-Info website, depending on the charges, protesters risk being\u00a0fined “from 2,000 to 300,000 rubles (from \u20ac17 to more than \u20ac2,500) and risk up to 30 days in detention”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unable to rely on\u00a0Russian media sources\u00a0regarding the protests, OVD-Info receives information directly from the field as well as from the detainees themselves. \u201cThey call us via our hotline or send messages to our Telegram bot,\u201d Durnovo\u00a0explained.\u00a0\u201cWe ask them to tell us the number of detainees on a police bus or in a police station along with their names, the name of the city and any other significant information, such as possible cases of violence.”<\/p>\n

He added that\u00a0this information is\u00a0crosschecked with other sources.\u00a0This includes independent media, Telegram channels and, to a lesser extent, statements from police officials (which is compared with data\u00a0collected elsewhere).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The official media sometimes mentions anti-war\u00a0protests but we can’t\u00a0use them as a source because they don’t tell the whole story. Sometimes we can quote the number of detainees from the statements of police officials and compare it with our\u00a0own\u00a0data,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Petition gathers over\u00a01 million\u00a0signatures\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition to NGOs,\u00a0citizens\u00a0and professional groups have been taking up the anti-war banner by\u00a0using social networks or getting support from independent media. \u00a0<\/p>\n

A number of petitions and open letters have been circulating on the Internet since the start of the invasion, including one from Russian lawyers citing Russian violations of the UN Charter. Russian scientists have posted a video on YouTube expressing their opposition to the war.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The most significant of these initiatives remains\u00a0a\u00a0Change.org\u00a0 petition\u00a0entitled,\u00a0Stop the War with Ukraine<\/a>.\u00a0Launched by Lev Ponomarev, a Russian political activist committed to the defence of human rights, the text calls on Russian\u00a0citizens to resist the war.\u00a0It exceeded\u00a01 million\u00a0signatures on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The petition calls for \u201can immediate ceasefire of the Russian armed forces and their immediate withdrawal from the territory of the sovereign state of Ukraine\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Ponomarev, if a million signatures are gathered, it means that tens of millions of people are opposed to the war against Ukraine, given the difficulty many\u00a0Russians have in accessing the Internet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Restrictions can be circumvented on the Internet\u2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

On social networks, many messages testify both to the\u00a0vigorous opposition that some Russians have against the war and the government, as well as their reluctance to go and shout it out on the streets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0“In the West, foreigners write on social networks, ‘It’s up to the Russians to stop the dictator’ \u2013 but how on earth? This monster will crush any protest,” read one comment under a Facebook post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy friends went out to demonstrate in Moscow today with placards. No one joined them,\u201d another user lamented, before ironically remarking in another message: \u201cYou have to go out to sing Ukrainian songs:\u00a0singing is not yet banned!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the Russian authorities’\u00a0efforts to censor\u00a0certain online resources,\u00a0demonstrating opposition to the Russian government seems much less risky on the Internet than on the streets. \u00a0<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Human Rights Watch, Russian authorities\u00a0have threatened to fine or block several independent Russian media outlets if they do not remove certain publications about the war in Ukraine. The NGO also expressed concern about the sharp rise in censorship. In recent days, Facebook and Twitter have also come under fire from Russia’s communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, which is now restricting their access.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, as Stanislav points out, “on the Internet, restrictions can be circumvented. Many online resources can still be accessed using a VPN (virtual private network), which is widely used. The VPN transmits traffic via servers in a country other than Russia,\u00a0where sources of information can be blocked”, he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, he is not satisfied\u00a0with just this\u00a0rear base on the Internet. Even if he is alone each time when he goes out to protest\u00a0\u2013\u00a0his friends are afraid to demonstrate with him\u00a0in public \u2013 he says he wants to continue to protest on the streets, saying: “Protesting only on the Internet cannot lead to much.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This article is a translation\u00a0from\u00a0the original in French<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION An article by Pauline Rouquette in France 24 Thousands of Russians have taken to the streets in protest against the invasion of Ukraine, with more than 6500 demonstrators arrested as of Tuesday, according to the\u00a0OVD-Info human rights group, which tracks political arrests.\u00a0 A person holds a sign during a protest against … Continue reading Russian anti-war movement takes shape on the streets \u2013 and on screens<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,75,15],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-26581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disarmament","category-europe","category-information","tag-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}