Anti-war protests in Russia
‘Here, in Yakutsk, hundreds surround police. Circling in folk dance formation, they chant “No to genocide!” and “No to war!”'
As arrests of anti-war protestors increased in Russia, Quakers expressed concern about pacifists in the region.
Last month, roughly 2,000 people in total were detained across Russia for taking to the streets, after Vladimir Putin, the president, announced a ‘partial mobilisation’, ordering men to fight against Ukraine. This included 798 people detained in thirty-three towns on Saturday 23 September, according to independent monitoring group OVD-Info.
Writing on the Friends House Moscow Facebook page on 25 September, Quakers wrote that it is significant that protests are taking place beyond Moscow and St Petersburg. ‘Here, in Yakutsk, hundreds surround police. Circling in folk dance formation, they chant “No to genocide!” and “No to war!” Yakutsk is a city in the northernmost part of Siberia. Like other rural, poor and ethnic minority parts of Russia, Yakutia sends many young men to the army and has sent a disproportionate number to this war. The region’s rural and indigenous (Sakha) communities depend on hunting and fishing. That is, they depend on the work of young adult men to get them through the winter.’
The mobilisation order is the first in Russia since one was issued in 1942 in response to the German invasion of 1941.
The group Human Rights Watch reported in March that, after thousands of peaceful protesters were arrested at anti-war rallies across Russia, ‘The police used excessive force against protestors while detaining them and, in several instances, inflicted abuse amounting to torture or inhuman and degrading treatment, on those in custody’.
Michael Eccles, executive secretary of Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) Europe and Middle East Section (EMES), said: ‘I think the situation must be very delicate and people are scared of the consequences of speaking out.’
On 4 October, Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) hosted an online event for its citizen diplomacy project, launched after the invasion of Ukraine. The session shared ideas on how Friends can make connections with Russian people, initially those in our communities. Another session will follow on 11 October.
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