Wartime repressions: Seven months of war
The Russian military aggression against Ukraine has been going on for seven months now. On September 21, president Putin announced the mobilization, on the same day thousands of people took the protest to the streets. Security forces detained 1,330 people in 42 cities. We publish a summary of all anti-war repressions since the beginning of the war.
Restrictions on the right to freedom of assembly
In just seven months of the war, we have recorded at least 17 thousand detentions. In addition to street detentions, this number includes detentions for anti-war posts on social networks, anti-war symbols as well as detentions after the after anti-war protests.
In total, since the beginning of the war, we know of at least 250 cases of non-admission of lawyers, the use of force against them, deprivation of status and other types of pressure.
Since the beginning of the war, Russian legislators have introduced laws or adopted amendments that expand the apparatus of pressure on society 24 times. Among such initiatives are the article of the Criminal Code on «voluntary surrender», the law «On control over the activities of persons under foreign influence», the prohibition of «childfree» propaganda and many others.
Criminal cases
Those detained at the rallies against mobilization on September 21 were charged with articles 20.2, 20.2.2 and 19.3 of the Administrative Code. Defenders of OVD-Info helped 283 people in 7 cities. The courts ordered 203 administrative arrests, 71 fines, 3 compulsory works, 2 postponements of detention and 4 cases were returned to the police. The data may change, as not all the trials have passed yet.
And according to the data from the Joint Press Service of the Judicial System of St. Petersburg, on the grounds of the rally that took place on September 21, the courts issued 391 administrative decisions over the next two days, of which 343 arrests took up to 88%. Almost all the detainees were found guilty.
Over the past six months, the courts of St. Petersburg have issued 5,132 decisions, of which 908 were arrests. 81% of the defendants were found guilty.
Extra-judicial pressure
We know about 117 cases of extrajudicial pressure — attacks, threats and damaging of property for an anti-war position. The data is collected from open sources and appeals to the OVD-Info hotline. We assume that the figure may be larger.
«Foreign agents» and «undesirable organizations»
The status was received, among others, by the editor-in-chief of «Novaya Gazeta. Europe» Kirill Martynov, blogger Kirill Fedorov, journalist Sergey Loiko, municipal deputy Yulia Galyamina, broadcaster Maxim Shats and political scientist Sergey Medvedev. Also this month, musicians, journalists, bloggers and showmen were included in the foreign agents» register
A total of 99 people and organizations have been included in the register of «foreign agents» since February 24.
After the dissolution of the International Memorial for «systematic violations of the law on „foreign agents“, » on September 16, the Tverskoy District Court ordered the seizure of the Memorial’s accounts and property as part of the case on the recognition as invalid of the transfer of the office of the International Memorial to another organization, and the conversion of property to the income of the Russian Federation.
In September, new «undesirable organizations» were not added to the list. Since the beginning of the war, 15 organizations have been introduced to the list.
Post on the Alla Pugacheva's official instagam account
After this post by Alla Pugacheva, a resident of the Moscow region contacted the police, who felt that the singer was insulting the Russian army. The police will check Alla Borisovna Pugacheva for illegal activities, as well as for public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
Blocking and censorship
Among the blocked sites are the Quora question and answer service, Canva graphic design service, air quality check service aqicn.org, and Pexels, a free photo stock. Also blocked were articles from the Argentine publisher Clarin and from the Japanese portal TBS about the events in Bucha, as well as an article by Human Rights Watch that states that the conscription of Crimeans to serve in the Russian army violates international law.
The Moscow City Court, at the request of the prosecutor’s office, dissolved the Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers, and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation decided to deprive the electronic edition of Novaya Gazeta of a media license. After the announcement of the «partial» mobilization, Roskomnadzor threatened to block media for using information received from non-official sources in materials on mobilization.
The Tagansky court of Moscow imposed a fine of 21.7 billion rubles on Google due to repeated failure to remove «false information about the course of a special military operation in Ukraine.»
Pressure on independent media
Over the past month, the pressure on independent sources of information in Russia has not weakened: a case of «extremism» was opened against the co-founder of Dissernet, Andrey Zayakin, and twice during this time the courts fined publishers and editors of independent media for «fakes» in Samara and Moscow.
At least 7 journalists in several regions were searched in the case of former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev: Vladislav Postnikov, the editor-in-chief of Vecherniye Vedomosti, Viktor Zyryanov, one of the founders of the Oryol publication Orlets, Julia Glazova, who is a journalist for Sibreal and 86.ru, RusNews journalist Bella Nasibyan, photographer Ruslan Sukhushin, as well as the alleged moderators of the telegram channel of the legion «Freedom of Russia».
Blogger Sergey Nosov, director and four employees of the Odintsovo-INFO portal, and coordinator of the Association of Observers Dmitry Pervukhin were also searched. On September 23, journalists of the «People of Baikal» Olga Mutovina and Elena Batutene were detained in the Irkutsk region.
In addition, we know that in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, journalists were banned from attending a meeting of veterans who returned from Ukraine. Moreover, a journalist of the German publication Der Spiegel was not allowed to interview residents of border areas.
Links to other data and reports of the Department of OVD-Info:
- Summary of anti-war repressions. August 2022
- Summary of anti-war repressions. July 2022
- Summary of anti-war repressions. June 2022
- Report in Russian «No war. How the Russian authorities are fighting anti-war protests.»
- Report in Ukranian «No war. How the Russian authorities are fighting anti-war protests.»
- Guide «The anti-war cause.»
- The input of information in reply to the call for submissions: Challenges to freedom of opinion and expression in times of conflicts and disturbances.
- Report «Blocking Internet resources as a tool of political censorship.»
- Project on the law on «foreign agents» — «Inoteka».
- Report «How the authorities use cameras and facial recognition against protesters.»
- Reports of OVD-Info and other organizations on the compliance of the Russian Federation with its international obligations in the field of human rights.
- Information on the human rights situation in Russia for the OSCE Moscow Mechanism.