Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, anti-war demonstrations and protests broke out across Russia. As well as the demonstrations, a number of petitions and open letters have been penned in opposition to the war, and a number of public figures, both cultural and political, have released statements against the war.
The protests have been met with widespread repression by the Russian authorities. According to OVD-Info, at least 14,906 people were detained from 24 February to 13 March. Human rights organizations and reporters have raised concerns of police brutality during arrests and OVD-Info reported several cases of protestors being tortured under detention. The government has also moved to crack down on other forms of opposition to the war, including introducing widespread censorship measures. Other individuals who signed anti-war petitions have faced reprisals. After Putin announced a partial mobilization of Russia’s military reserves on 21 September, over 2,000 people were detained in mass street protests in the following days.
Street protests
February
On the afternoon of the invasion, the Investigative Committee of Russia issued a warning to Russians that they would face legal repercussions for joining unsanctioned protests related to “the tense foreign political situation”. The opposition activist Marina Litvinovich called on Instagram for street protests on the evening of 24 February but was detained by police as she left her house. That evening, thousands took to the streets in cities across Russia to protest the war. The largest demonstrations were in Moscow, where 2,000 protesters gathered near Pushkinskaya Square, and Saint Petersburg, where up to 1,000 protesters gathered. Hundreds demonstrated in Yekaterinburg, and there were also demonstrations in Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk and Perm, including other cities. By the end of the evening of the day of the invasion, according to the OVD-Info monitor, there had been 1,820 arrests in 58 cities, of which 1,002 were carried out in Moscow. Russia’s interior ministry justified these arrests with “coronavirus restrictions, including on public events”.
On the following day, 25 February, further protests had continued in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and other cities. In Saint Petersburg several hundred people gathered in the city center, chanting ‘No to war!’ OVD-Info reported 437 detentions in 26 Russian cities on that day, including 226 in Moscow and 130 in Saint Petersburg.
On 26 February, some Russian protestors chose to reduce the chances of arrest by staging single-person protests in Moscow and other city squares. Others gathered in small groups to move more nimbly around the streets. In Yekaterinburg, hundreds gathered, shouting ‘No to war!’. Throughout the day at least 469 people were arrested in 34 cities, of which around half in Moscow, bringing the total number of arrests to over 3,000.
Protests continued on 27 February. The protests coincided with the seventh anniversary of the murder of the opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, and arrests took place at an improvised memorial outside the Kremlin where Nemtsov was shot. Around 1,000 people gathered for a spontaneous anti-war rally near Great Gostiny Dvor in Saint Petersburg. According to OVD-Info, by early Sunday evening, police had detained at least 900 Russians in 44 cities, bringing the total number of arrests to over 4,000 since the war had begun. By the end of the day, that number had grown to around 2,710 arrests (at least 5,844 in total since the beginning of the war), including at least 1,269 arrests in Moscow and 1,034 in Saint Petersburg. Members of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the People’s Freedom Party, and Yabloko, spoke out against the invasion. On the same day, a van with markings that read “People, wake up!”, “This is war”, “Putin is scum!” in Russian crashed and caught fire in Pushkinskaya Square.
March
On 1 March, reports and photographs appeared in social media, also republished and confirmed by Novaya Gazeta, showing primary school children behind bars, arrested by police in Moscow for laying flowers at the Ukrainian embassy and holding signs saying the repeated “No to war”. A special detention center set up in Yekaterinburg ran out of room for prisoners arrested from protests.
On 2 March, the artist Yelena Osipova, aged 77 and born to survivors of the Siege of Leningrad, was among those arrested at an anti-war protest in Saint Petersburg. Videos of her arrest were widely shared on social media platforms Twitter and Reddit. Police action against the protesters continued on the following day.
On 4 March, the activist Yulia Galyamina was detained and held in custody pending trial, charged with violating the law on public events by trying to organize an anti-war protest.
On 5 March, ahead of protests planned for 6 March, police raided, searched and detained hundreds of Russian journalists, politicians and activists.
On 6 March, there were protests in at least 60 cities, including Vladivostok, Irkutsk and Khabarovsk. OVD-Info reported over 5,000 arrests throughout the day. The Russian interior ministry reported over 3,500 detentions. A video showing Kemerovo Oblast governor Sergey Tsivilyov attempting to justify the invasion to protestors that day went viral. The total number of arrests reached 13,000 overall on 6 March.
On 8 March, International Women’s Day, the Feminist Anti-War Resistance group reported that women laid flowers at war monuments across 94 Russian and international cities, including Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kanash, Yaroslavl, Syktyvkar, Smolensk, Luga, Lytkarino, Izhevsk, Volgograd, Irkutsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Ufa, Omsk, Mytishchi, Gelendzhik, Perm, Kazan, Zelenograd, Balashov, Saratov, Biysk, Khimki, Chelyabinsk, Krasnodar, Novovoronezh, Vologda, Korolev, Troitsk, Serpukhov, Vladimir, Revda, Tolyatti, Kaliningrad, Naberezhnye Chelny, Volgodonsk, Ramenskoye, Samara, Leninavan farm, Stavropol, Arkhangelsk, Yoshkar-Ola, Krasnogorsk , Novokuibyshevsk, Zheleznovodsk, Murom, Snegiri, Nakhabino, Rostov-on-Don, Cheboksary, Saransk, Dzerzhinsky, Veliky Novgorod, Tyumen, Tobolsk, Podolsk, Tula, Grebnevo village, Dolgoprudny, Murino, Vladikavkaz and Alagir. Police ordered the women laying flowers at the Gostiny Dvor in Saint Petersburg to disperse, and made over five arrests. In Moscow the Alexander Garden was closed to block access to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, so flowers were left nearby. 11 girls were detained in Moscow’s Manezhnaya Square. At least 93 people, at least 60 of them in Moscow, were detained.
On 15 March, Anastasia Parshkova was arrested for standing alone before the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow with a placard bearing the words “6th Commandment. Don’t Kill”. She was taken to the police station, according to the Avtozak Live telegram channel. The art historian Maria Silina has characterized Parshkova’s action – redeploying symbols of the Russian Orthodox Church to critique the alliance between Orthodox religion and military ideology – as an example of détournement typical of contemporary feminist art activism in Russia.
In the week following International Women’s Day, several videos went viral on social media showing Russian police arresting protestors for simply holding up a blank sign. Another arrest which went viral was that of a woman arrested for holding up a small sign that simply read “два слова” (“two words” in Russian).
By the end of March, mass protests were reported to have largely subsided due to repression from the authorities. Some smaller individual acts of opposition against the war continued.
April–June
In Sochi, Diana Isakova and other activists prepared flyers with QR codes that led to an online text “Time to change!” written by Isakova, criticizing Putin as a dictator and calling for citizens to organize and carry out nonviolent resistance against the Putin government. On 17 April, Isakova and her colleagues distributed the flyers. Isakova was later arrested but was not prosecuted.
The audience staged an anti-war protest at the concert of the Russian group Kis-Kis in Saint Petersburg in May.
Unconfirmed reports circulated about a protest planned for 12 June, Russia Day, which eventually did not take place. Instead, authorities in Moscow detained 50 people, using facial recognition software.
September
Further information: 2022 North Caucasian protests and 2022 Far Eastern protests
On 21 September, the Vesna movement called for country-wide demonstrations in response to Putin’s announcement of partial mobilization of Russia’s military reserves, following setbacks for the Russian military during the Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast. Multiple small-scale protests followed in several cities, including Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Tomsk. More than 1,311 protesters in 38 cities had been detained by the end of the day, according to OVD-Info.
On 24 September, anti-mobilization rallies organized by Vesna took place in many cities. The rallies were marked by mass detentions not only of protesters, but also of ordinary passers-by. According to OVD-Info, more than 750 people were detained by 22:30 Moscow time.
On 25 September, the women of Yakutsk went to a rally under the slogans “We will not give up our husbands”, “No to genocide”, “No to war”. People gathered in Uosohhai, a traditional round dance symbolizing the blessing of mothers for the safe return of their husbands and sons. The women were soon dispersed by the security forces. On the same day, residents of Endirey, Khasavyurtovsky District of Dagestan, took part in a rally against mobilization. The police fired live rounds into the air in an attempt to disperse the rally.
In the evening of 25 September, a rally was held in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. At the rally, protesters clashed with the police, who in turn opened fire into the air. By the end of the day, the protest was dispersed by Rosgvardia troops.
Other direct action
As well as protests, activists have also posted anti-war stickers around neighborhoods, have written anti-war messages on banknotes, and have hung posters that mimic official missing person posters, but that instead contain information about Russian soldiers that have been killed in the invasion. The artist Alexandra Skochilenko was arrested for allegedly replacing supermarket labels with messages protesting the Mariupol theatre airstrike, and jailed for eight weeks pending trial under the Russian fake news laws.
In Voronezh and Lukhovitsy, cases of arson of military enlistment offices and police departments in Krasnoyarsk and Smolensk were recorded. Molotov cocktails were used in all of them. As of beginning-June, at least 15 cases of arson directed at military recruitment centers had been recorded. On 24 March, a video was released on TikTok showing a protestor throwing Molotov cocktails at the Moscow Kremlin walls. On 28 March, Moscow student Anastasia Levashova was sentenced to two years in prison for having thrown a Molotov cocktail at police during an anti-war rally.
At least four teachers have been arrested after criticizing the invasion in their classrooms. On 3 March, the Russian Ministry of Education instructed teachers to hold lessons telling students “why the liberation mission in Ukraine is a necessity.” On 20 March, six women blocked traffic on a bridge in Zelenchukskaya demanding information about their relatives who had been sent to fight in Ukraine. All six were arrested.
On 14 March, Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at Channel One Russia, disrupted the set of the channel’s main news program Vremya during prime time by holding up a sign with an anti-war message. The sign read: “NO WAR. Stop the war. Do not believe the propaganda, here you are being lied to. Russians against war”. Ovsyannikova, the daughter of a Ukrainian father and a Russian mother, also released a pre-recorded video at OVD-Info in which she expressed shame for her part in spreading “Kremlin propaganda” at Channel One. She was detained by police later that evening and was released, according to TASS. Ovsyannikova was detained and later released again on 17 July after staging a lone protest at the Sophia Embankment, in front of the Kremlin, two days prior.
Others have taken to attempt to remove symbols of pro-Russian actions, such as the letter Z. A man, who later fled to Armenia, reportedly stopped a car with the letter Z on its windscreen with a shovel and ordered the car’s inhabitants to rip it off.
On 26 September, a gunman opened fire at a draft office in Irkutsk Oblast, injuring one senior official.
Russian military personnel
Some Russian soldiers have been reported to have disobeyed orders to join the invasion. On 12 March, it was reported that around 80 marines had refused to fight after being deployed to Kherson and were returned to Crimea. On 7 April, Pskov newspaper Pskovskaya Gubernia reported that around 60 Russian paratroopers in Belarus had refused such orders, further reporting that Russian commanders were blocking attempts by soldiers to resign from the Russian Armed Forces and referring those soldiers to prosecutors instead.
Among service personnel who have refused to conduct hostilities against Ukraine include 11 OMON fighters from Khakassia, about 100 OMON fighters from Omsk, as well as servicemen of the 15th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment, the 9th Guards, 165th and 227th Artillery Brigades, the 15th Separate Peacekeeping, 25th Guards, 38th, 64th, 74th Guards, 80th, 138th and 200th Separate Motor Rifle Brigades, 5th and 71st Anti-Aircraft Rocket Brigades, 54th and 95th Control Brigades, 6th Regiment of NBC Protection, 51st Separate Logistics Brigade, 69th Separate Covering Brigade, 108th and 247th Guards Air Assault Regiments, 810th Separate Guards Naval Infantry Brigade stationed in the Crimea, commanders at different ranks of the 3rd Motor Rifle Division, and the personnel of two battalion tactical groups of the 4th Guards Military Base from South Ossetia which has been deployed with the 58th Combined Arms Army. On 30 March 2022, South Ossetian social media channels, local bloggers, and politicians such as the former de facto president Eduard Kokoity reported that many Ossetian servicemen — up to 300, according to one source — had abandoned the Ukrainian battlefields, returning home “of their own free will”.
Petitions and open letters
In the weeks preceding the invasion, there were signs that anti-war sentiment was growing in Saint Petersburg. At the beginning of February, over 150 prominent Russian activists, authors, and academics signed an open letter, ‘If Only There Is No War!’, protesting the “party of war in the Russian leadership” and state media.
After the invasion, Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov announced that the Novaya Gazeta newspaper would publish its next edition in both Ukrainian and Russian. Muratov, the journalist Mikhail Zygar, the film director Vladimir Mirzoyev, and others signed a document stating that Ukraine is not a threat to Russia and calling for Russian citizens “to say no to this war.” The Kommersant reporter Elena Chernenko launched an anti-war petition, which was signed by over 250 journalists. Another letter condemning the war was signed by over 250 scientists, and a third open letter was signed by almost 200 municipal council members in Moscow and other cities. On 24 February, human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov started an online petition to protest against the invasion, garnering 289,000 signatures by the end of the day. By 1 March, the petition had gathered more than a million votes. On 26 February, a petition for the impeachment of Putin was published by a Russian citizen on the Change.org website, gathering more than 200,000 signatures by the end of 27 February. Some of the petition signers lost their jobs.
More than 30,000 technology workers, 6,000 medical workers, 3,400 architects, more than 4,300 teachers, more than 17,000 artists, 5,000 scientists, and 2,000 actors, directors, and other creative figures signed open letters calling for Putin’s government to stop the war. Some Russians who signed petitions against Russia’s war in Ukraine lost their jobs.
1,200 students, faculty and staff of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, signed an open letter stating that they “consider it morally unacceptable to stay on the sidelines and keep silent when people are dying in a neighboring state. They are dying through the fault of those who preferred weapons instead of peaceful diplomacy. …. Many generations of future diplomats will have to rebuild the trust in Russia and the good relations with our neighbors that have been lost.”
Russian actress Chulpan Khamatova, known for her roles in Good Bye, Lenin! and Petrov’s Flu, was forced to leave Russia after signing an anti-war petition
Igor Kochetkov, the head of the Russian LGBT Network, launched an open letter against the war and stating that “There are a lot of problems in our country, including the spread of anti-human ideas, which often come from high-ranking officials. Let’s start ‘denazification’ with them.” The open letter received signatures from 150 Russian LGBT+ rights activists.
The Feminist Anti-War Resistance campaign, one of the first founded in opposition to the war, launched with a manifesto saying that “war exacerbates gender inequality and sets back gains for human rights by many years” and that the war was being “fought under the banner of the “traditional values” declared by government ideologues,” which were contrary to human rights and liberation.
Representatives of Russian arts and culture workers initiated an open letter expressing solidarity with the Ukrainian people and protesting against the war. As of 23:00 Moscow time on 27 February 2022, the letter was signed by 17,000 people.
We, artists, curators, architects, critics, art critics, art managers — representatives of culture and art of the Russian Federation – express our absolute solidarity with the people of Ukraine and say a resolute “NO TO WAR!”. We demand the immediate cessation of all hostilities, the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, and the holding of peace talks.
Lev Ponomaryov initiated a petition titled “Остановить войну с Украиной! – Нет войне” (“Stop the war with Ukraine! – No to war”). By 4 March, the petition had been signed by more than 1.18 million Russians.
In April 2023, Anti-Kremlin activists gathered at a rally, organized by Navalny’s team and urged to European Union to ban Svetlana Maniovich, ex-wife of Timur Ivanov, from living in Europe and her assets frozen. In addition, in October 2022, the EU had introduced sanctions against Timur Ivanov. According to the EU, Timur is responsible for the Russian war effort at large.
Symbolism
“No to war!”
“No to war!” (Russian: “Нет войне!”]) is an anti-war slogan used by the demonstrators in the 2022 anti-war protests in Russia. Children also used this slogan on handmade signs and tried to leave their message outside the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow. They were arrested for those actions.
Relatives of some Russian officials who justify Russia’s war against Ukraine have also expressed their disagreement with the Kremlin’s decision through the hashtag “No to war!”. Among them was Liza Peskova, the daughter of the official representative of the Kremlin Dmitry Peskov.
White-blue-white flag
The white-blue-white flag is an anti-war symbol created by removing the red from the Russian flag. According to anti-war protestors, the red represented blood and violence, and the flag attempts to evoke the legacy of the Novgorod Republic as an example of democracy. However, not all protesters appreciated the flag. Maria Motuznaya (an opposition activist) had criticized the justification for the removal red stripe of the flag.
Green ribbons
Some protestors have used green ribbons as a symbol of opposition to the war.
Statements against the war
Statements against the war by Russian politicians and political parties
Both the Russian United Democratic “Yabloko” Party and the Party of People’s Freedom condemned the impending invasion of Ukraine several days before February 24, 2022. Both of these parties opposed the illegal annexation of Crimea and hold moderately pro-Ukrainian positions. The Yabloko party published a petition demanding the withdrawal of troops from the Ukrainian-Russian border on February 13, 2022. Although the party continues to legally exist, dozens of Yabloko members, politicians, and activists have been arrested or detained since February 24.
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) officially supports the invasion and is often characterized as a controlled opposition to Putin’s government, however, some youth and left-wing factions within the party have opposed the war. The only two members of the State Duma to have spoken against the war have been KPRF deputies: Mikhail Matveyev and Oleg Smolin. KPRF senator Vyacheslav Markhayev has also spoken against the war. On 27 May 2022, two KPRF lawmakers from the Legislative Assembly of Primorsky Krai were kicked out of the oblast’s KPRF group and two others were reprimanded by the party after presenting a statement in opposition to the war. Another faction associated with the International Marxist Tendency face expulsion from the party after organizing an anti-war committee called “KPRF/LKSM Members Against the War.”
On February 15, the website of Russian political party New People, which is also known as a controlled opposition and a spoiler party, released a statement by Sardana Avksentyeva, condemning the war. After the start of the invasion, leader of the party, Alexey Nechayev, made statements in support of military action. Avksentyeva’s anti-war statement was deleted, and she herself later supported the invasion: “And I feel that today we must give our military an opportunity to complete their work… We need the victory”.
However, one of the New People deputies of the State Duma, Sangadji Tarbaev, has publicly condemned the war. Valery Gartung, also a State Duma deputy and a member of A Just Russia — For Truth party (which supports the invasion), also denounced it in Facebook, and later commented his post to Republic.ru.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last CPSU General Secretary and the head of state of the Soviet Union, stated that “everything possible must be done to stop the threat of a nuclear war”. On 26 February, the Gorbachev Foundation stated: “In connection with Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, begun on February 24, we affirm the need for an early cessation of hostilities and immediate start of peace negotiations. There is nothing more precious in the world than human lives.”
On 27 February, Russian politician Lyudmila Narusova, a member of the Federation Council, stated in a television interview: “I do not identify myself with those representatives of the state that speak out in favor of the war. I think they themselves do not know what they are doing. They are following orders without thinking.” Arkady Dvorkovich, who served as a Deputy Prime Minister from 2012 to 2018, condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and said that “Wars are the worst things one might face in life…including this war. My thoughts are with Ukrainian civilians.” On 23 March, Putin’s longtime advisor and Russian climate envoy Anatoly Chubais resigned from his position and left Russia due to his opposition to the war.
Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader who was imprisoned in January 2021, called Putin an “obviously insane tsar” and urged Russians to continue daily street protests: “Go out onto the main square of your city every weekday at 19.00 and at 14.00 at weekends and on holidays”. Later, he called out Putin’s partial mobilization order by comparing the recruitment of prisoners to the fictional Suicide Squad, asking “What an army made of murderers, robbers, brigands could accomplish in combat?”
Other groups which have expressed their opposition to the war include the Revolutionary Workers Party, the Libertarian Party of Russia, Socialist Alternative, the Pirate Party of Russia, the United Communist Party, the Left Bloc and Autonomous Action.
Ukrainian-born Russian politician and diplomat Natalia Poklonskaya, who rose to prominence during Russia’s annexation of Crimea, called the invasion a catastrophe, also adding “People are dying, houses and entire cities are destroyed [leaving] millions of refugees. Bodies and souls are mutilated. My heart is bursting with pain. My two native countries are killing each other, that’s not what I wanted and it’s not what I want”. She also said that Ukraine’s society has “changed” in the eight years since the war in Donbas with pro-Russian separatists was ongoing and that Ukrainians “would not greet Russia with flowers”. She also criticized the Z military symbol. According to The Moscow Times, Poklonskaya’s break with Russia’s official line that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a “special military operation” to “de-Nazify and demilitarize” Ukraine was practically unheard of for a sitting official.
On 23 May, Russian diplomat Boris Bondarev announced that he had resigned from his position in protest over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, referring to the invasion as an “aggressive war”, saying that it was not only a crime against the Ukrainian people, but also “the most serious crime against the people of Russia, with a bold letter Z crossing out all hopes and prospects for a prosperous free society in our country”.
On 9 September, seven council members from Smolninsky District Council in St. Petersburg passed a resolution which called on the State Duma to impeach president Putin for “high treason” due to his handling of the war in Ukraine. Subsequently, these council members have been arrested by police “due to actions aimed at discrediting the current Russian government.” Dmitry Palyuga, a councilor, published a resolution on Twitter which accuse Putin of: “(1) the decimation of young able-bodied Russian men who would serve the workforce better than the military; (2) Russia’s economic downturn and brain drain; (3) NATO’s expansion eastward, including adding Finland and Sweden to “double” its border with Russia; (4) the opposite effect of the “special military operation” in Ukraine.” Likewise, a similar resolution was debated and passed by Moscow’s Lomonosovsky District Council.
Statements against the war by public figures
After the invasion began on 24 February, several Russian celebrities, including pop star Valery Meladze, television host Ivan Urgant and television presenter Ksenia Sobchak, unambiguously criticized it on social media. The comedian and television presenter Maxim Galkin and television comedian Alexander Gudkov also condemned the war, as did actress Chulpan Khamatova and actor Konstantin Khabensky. Vlogger Yury Dud received a million ‘likes’ for a post criticizing the war: “I write these words for a reason. When my children grow up and discover this moment in history… and ask me ‘Dad, what did you do?’, I want to have written proof that I did not choose this regime and did not support its imperialist rage.”
Ukrainian-born pop star Svetlana Loboda asked “How is this possible? Lord, stop all this!” Figure skater Evgenia Medvedeva called for “this all [to end] as soon as possible, like a bad dream”. Chess player Yan Nepomniachtchi tweeted in protest: “History has seen many Black Thursdays. But today is blacker than the others. #saynotowar”. Tennis world number one Daniil Medvedev and world number seven Andrey Rublev both spoke out in favor of peace on the day of the invasion. On the following day Rublev wrote “No war please” on the camera after winning his match. The hip-hop artist Oxxxymiron cancelled upcoming shows and called for mass protest, calling the invasion “a crime and a catastrophe”. Yelena Kovalskaya resigned as director of the state-owned Meyerhold Theater Center, writing that it was “impossible to work for a murderer and receive salary from him”.
Pianist and composer Evgeny Kissin described Russia’s invasion as a crime that cannot be justified. The pianist Alexander Melnikov said “I’m furious with [Putin’s government] for making me feel guilty about being Russian.” Pop singer Sergey Lazarev called for the war to stop.
On 25 February, the ice hockey star Alex Ovechkin, an ardent Putin supporter, made an ambiguous statement against the war without mentioning Ukraine or Russia. On 26 February, Georgian basketball player Tornike Shengelia announced he was prematurely terminating his contract with CSKA Moscow “in protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”. Citing the club’s historical links to the Red Army, Shengelia said: “I do not consider it possible to continue playing for the Russian army club”.
Liza Peskova, the daughter of Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, shared an image of the “No to war” hashtag on her Instagram story but then quickly deleted it and criticized the protests. Russia’s richest billionaire, Mikhail Fridman, called for the “bloodshed to end”. Another oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, called for peace talks to begin “as fast as possible.” An anonymous Russian billionaire told Reuters, “It is going to be catastrophic in all senses: for the economy, for relations with the rest of the world, for the political situation.” Russian billionaire and owner of the REN TV television network Alexei Mordashov spoke out against both the fighting and the economic fallout that has resulted from it. “It is terrible that Ukrainians and Russians are dying, people are suffering hardships, the economy is collapsing. We must do everything necessary so that a way out of this conflict is found in the very near future and the bloodshed stops in order to help the affected people restore normal life.”
By 27 February, several prominent Russian public figures living in exile had organized the Anti-War Committee of Russia. The group issued a statement denouncing the war and calling on “patriots of Russia to consolidate against the aggressive dictatorship of Vladimir Putin.”
Mikhail Shishkin, winner of the 2000 Russian Booker Prize, wrote on The Guardian that “Putin is committing monstrous crimes in the name of my people, my country, and me” and saying that “in Putin’s Russia it’s impossible to breathe. The stench from the policeman’s boot is too strong.”
Actor Danila Kozlovsky posted several Instagram posts condemning the war, sharing an image of a crying refugee and using the “Нет войне!”-hashtag. In a post on 27 February, Kozlovsky admitted to and apologized for his indifference to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014
Timur Bekmambetov, director of hits such as Night Watch, condemned the invasion in an interview with Deadline. Unconfirmed reports states that Bekmambetov (who is based in Los Angeles) and his family had cut ties with Russia completely, following the sale his production company Bazelevs Company.
On 21 March, rock musician Zemfira released an anti-war music video to her 2017 song “Don’t Shoot”, while also removing all of her other songs from her YouTube channel. The video contained footage of Russia’s military assault on Ukraine and of anti-war protests in Moscow.
In May 2022, rock singer Yuri Shevchuk was prosecuted after speaking out against Putin and the war in Ukraine at a concert in Ufa. He said that “people of Ukraine are being murdered” and “our boys are dying over there” due to “some Napoleonic plans of another Caesar of ours”. In September, singer Alla Pugacheva spoke out against the invasion, writing that Russians were dying in Ukraine for “illusory goals”, and that the invasion was “turning our country into a pariah and worsening the lives of our citizens.”
In October 2022, Russian actor Artur Smolyaninov was charged for “discrediting” the Russian military – that was after his anti-war-statements and after he had left Russia. He commented; “The laws of this state do not exist for me. They, like the state itself, are inherently criminal, which means they have neither moral nor legal force.” In January 2023, a United Russia deputy from the State Duma, Biysultan Khamzaev, said: “I will appeal to the Investigative Committee to open a criminal case against this traitor.”
Statements against the war by organizations
The founders of the “Immortal Regiment” commemoration movement, in which ordinary Russians carry photographs of veteran family members in marches around Russia held annually to mark WWII Victory Day on 9 May, addressed Vladimir Putin in a statement, asking him to “stop the bloodshed”. Svetlana Golub, head of the Union of the Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia told The Guardian that “Wars always lead to deaths. From the many conversations I have been sent between soldiers and their families, I believe many Russians have already died… Conflicts always mean lots of suffering. Please, both sides have to stop.”
Memorial, the oldest human rights organization in Russia, which has been repressed against by the Russian government and forced to shut down in 2021, described the invasion as “a crime against peace and humanity” in a statement, adding that it “will remain a shameful chapter in the Russian history.”
On 3 March, the multinational company Lukoil, the second largest company in Russia after Gazprom, called for a ceasefire and diplomatic means to solve the conflict.
Censorship and repression
A spokesperson for the United Nations condemned the “arbitrary arrests” of protestors, and called for their immediate release. On 8 March, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet expressed concerns over “the use of repressive legislation that impedes the exercise of civil and political rights and criminalizing non-violent behavior.”
On 26 February, Human Rights Watch stated that videos of the crack down it analyzed showed “brutal arrests of peaceful activists by police officers” and stated that “authorities’ actions to prevent people from participating in peaceful public protests and freely expressing their opinions violate fundamental rights.” On 3 March, it stated that the Russian government had blocked access to at least eight independent Russian media outlets, along with a number of Ukrainian media outlets, and that it was “bluntly imposing censorship combined with a false narrative that they demand everyone must parrot.” Amnesty International stated that the Russian government was “hellbent on stifling state critics as it coerces domestic media into supporting its policies” and “routinely used force to disperse nationwide anti-war protests.” International human rights NGO Civil Rights Defenders stated that there had been a “serious crackdown” on freedom of expression in Russia and that people who had been arrested for protesting against the war were being restricted from having access to lawyers.
On 4 March, seven international and Russian human rights groups (Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Human Rights House Foundation, the International Federation for Human Rights, the International Service for Human Rights, the Memorial Human Rights Centre, and Komitet Grazhdanskoe Sodeistvi) released a joint letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council stating that Russia was experiencing a “fully-fledged witch hunt against independent groups, human rights defenders, media outlets and journalists, and political opposition” that was “decimating civil society and forcing many into exile.”
Russia’s interior ministry justified the arrests due to the “coronavirus restrictions, including on public events” that remained in place. Russian authorities warned Russians of legal repercussions for joining anti-war protests. On 16 March, Putin gave a speech in which he called opponents of the war “scum and traitors,” saying that a “natural and necessary self-cleansing of society will only strengthen our country.”
War censorship and fake news laws
On 1 March, the Moscow radio station Echo of Moscow, as well as the independent television channel Dozhd, was forced off air for having aired opposition to the war. After completing their final broadcast, Dozhd put on a loop of Swan Lake, echoing the efforts of Soviet authorities to bury bad news, including the 1991 attempted coup d’état as the USSR was breaking up.
On 4 March, the Russian parliament passed a law aimed at stifling reporting and opposition to the war which punishes citizens with up to 15 years in jail for spreading “fake information” about the Russian military and its operations. This law also makes it illegal “to make calls against the use of Russian troops to protect the interests of Russia” or “for discrediting such use” with a penalty possible of up to three years in prison. The same provision applies to calls for sanctions against Russia. This law effectively criminalizes any public opposition to or independent news reporting about the war against Ukraine and could make it a crime to simply call the war a “war” — the Kremlin says it is a “special military operation” — on social media or in a news article or broadcast. Later that day, Putin signed the bill into law; he also signed into law a bill that would allow fines or prison sentences of up to 3 years for those calling for sanctions. On the same day, independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta announced that it was pulling all material related to the war from its website, saying that military censorship “has moved to the threat of criminal prosecution of both journalists and citizens who spread information about military hostilities that is different from the press releases of the Ministry of Defense.” That same day, Yekaterinburg-based independent news outlet Znak.com announced that it would be suspending its operations due to political repression.
That same week, Russian telecom regulator Roskomnadzor restricted access to social media websites Facebook and Twitter, as well as a number of international news organizations, including the BBC, German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, American broadcasters Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Ukrainian newspaper Svoboda, and Latvian news website Meduza. A number of other international news organizations suspended operations in Russia due to potential threats to their journalists, including ABC, Bloomberg News, CBC/Radio-Canada, CBS News, and CNN, with Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait stating that “the change to the criminal code, which seems designed to turn any independent reporter into a criminal purely by association, makes it impossible to continue any semblance of normal journalism inside the country.” On 6 March, Roskomnadzor restricted access to Mediazona, demanding that the website close itself down. Mediazona defiantly promised to continue, providing tips to evade censorship. On 11 March, Roskomnadzor blocked the websites of Amnesty International as well as that of Russian election monitoring group Golos.
According to the news website Agentstvo, over 150 journalists left Russia by 7 March since Putin signed the bill into law. Reporters Without Borders has called the law “the final blow [that] completed the destruction of Russia’s independent media.”
On 16 March, Russian socialite and food blogger Veronika Belotserkovskaya became the first individual charged under Russia’s new “false information” law. On 22 March, Russian journalist Alexander Nevzorov was charged after he published information that Russian forces had shelled a maternity hospital in Mariupol; he later fled Russia where he received Ukrainian citizenship and was sentenced to arrest in absentia after a court said his posts contained “deliberately false” information. On 25 March, Russian journalist Izabella Yevloyeva was charged under the “fakes law” after sharing a post on social media that described the “Z” symbol as being “synonymous with aggression, death, pain and shameless manipulation”.
Sergei Klokov, a Moscow policeman with Ukrainian roots, who is originally from Bucha, Kyiv Oblast, was arrested after he told colleagues what he had heard from his father and Ukrainian family friends about the Russian invasion.
According to OVD-Info, over 400 people were detained or fined by April under the laws prohibiting “fake” information about the military. The use of fake messages was claimed to have been used by Russian authorities by at least one Russian anti-war protestor. He claimed that shortly after he was released from detention strange anti-war messages appeared on his phone, and had feared the messages were an attempt to incriminate him before he could leave the country.
More than 2,000 people were detained or fined by May 2022 under the laws prohibiting “fake” information about the military. By early June, 53 criminal cases had been opened.
In July 2022, Alexey Gorinov , a member of the Krasnoselsky district council in Moscow, was sentenced to seven years in prison after making anti-war comments at a council meeting in March, including stating that Russia was waging a war of aggression against Ukraine. Lawyer Pavel Chikov said that this was the first jail term under the new law.
In August 2022, the former mayor of Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Roizman, was detained by police where he said he was being charged with “discrediting” the military. Roizman was previously fined three times under the same law.
According to OVD-Info, the total number of people detained across Russia after six months is around 16,500, with over 3,800 being charged with offenses that carry fines, and at least 224 facing criminal prosecution.
In December 2022, a Moscow court sentenced opposition politician Ilya Yashin to eight years and six months imprisonment for his statements about the circumstances of the killings in Bucha on charges of “spreading false information” about the armed forces. His punishment was the harshest given under the new laws. Later in December, a court sentenced a worker, Vladimir Rumyantsev, from Vologda, to three years in prison after it found him guilty of broadcasting “false information” about the armed forces that was “full of hatred” on social media, including “false” accusations of robberies, killings and violence against civilians; the prosecutor had sought a prison term of six years. OVD-Info said that over 380 others were on trial for similar charges.
In January 2023, an opposition deputy of the Saint Petersburg Legislative Assembly, Boris Vishnevsky, as well as a former deputy, Maksim Reznik, were charged with discrediting the armed forces over “materials about the city of Bucha” and a “large number of killed civilians”.
In March 2023, a new law was signed establishing criminal liability for “discrediting” and spreading “fakes” against mercenaries and volunteers fighting for Russia. Article 280.3 (“discrediting”) was amended to increase the maximum prison term from five years to seven years. Article 207.3 (“fakes”) was amended to increase terms from three years to five years under the first part of the law, with the second and third parts remaining unchanged, at 10 and 15 years, respectively.
Reprisals
The Moscow Times reported that some Russian workers who have signed petitions against the war have been told to withdraw their signatures by their employers, and have been fired if they refused. The newspaper also reported that some companies have warned employees against “making posts about political topics on Facebook.”
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has reported that students in some universities have been threatened with expulsion over acts of anti-war protest. In early March, the student union of Saint Petersburg State University reported that the university has expelled at least 13 students for taking part in anti-war protests.
A number of anti-war activists and independent journalists in Russia have had their homes targeted with vandalism since the beginning of the invasion, including having manure and messages calling them traitors left outside their doors. The Z symbol, which has achieved prominence in Russian popular culture as a symbol of support for the war, in part through state promotion of the symbol, has also been used to graffiti the homes of several anti-war activists. Film critic Anton Dolin, among those targeted with the symbol, described it as a threat, stating that “The purpose of this is clear: we know where your family lives, beware.”
According to The Moscow Times, Russian authorities and pro-government figures have actively encouraged reporting other citizens, including friends and family, for “anti-Russian” activities including anti-war statements.
Mass arrests
The recorded number of anti-war protestors arrested by day according to OVD-Info is:
24 February: 1,965
25 February: 643
26 February: 533
27 February: 2,857
28 February: 516
1 March: 329
2 March: 852
3 March: 498
4 March: 80
5 March: 84
6 March: 5,572
8 March: 122
13 March: 936
2 April: 215
21 September: 1,382
22 September: 14
24 September: 847
25 September: 149
Police brutality
Russian NGO OVD-Info reported that it had confirmed at least 30 cases of protestors being beaten by police on the weekend of 5–6 March, as well as several cases of arrested protestors being tortured in detention, while saying that “it is likely that this number is much higher. There are many videos on social networks in which police officers are seen beating anti-war protesters.” An audio recording from a protestor arrested that weekend who managed to conceal her phone while detained and interrogated by multiple police documented 11 minutes of physical and verbal abuse, with one officer telling her that “You are the enemies of Russia. You are the enemies of the people.”
Human Rights Watch has stated that Russian police have used “excessive force as they arrest people,” that police sometimes cover up their ID on their uniforms, that people arrested have been “forced to have their photo and fingerprints taken and surrender their telephones, contrary to Russian law,” and that several arrested protestors have been subjected to waterboarding. Mediazona has further reported that women who have been arrested have been subjected to threats of sexual violence, that arrested gender-non-conforming protestors have been ridiculed, and that police sprayed some detainees in the face with antiseptic solutions.
Reactions
Domestic opposition to anti-war sentiment
A number of people affiliated with the Russian government have spoken out against the protests. Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, stated that “now is not the time to be divided. Now is the time to unite, to unite around our president,” while acknowledging that “there are heated debates among cultural figures.” Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russian state-controlled news agencies RT and Rossiya Segodnya, stated that “If you are ashamed of being Russian now, don’t worry, you are not Russian.” In response to Simonyan’s statement, Vitalik Buterin, programmer and one of the co-founders of Ethereum, said, “Go fuck yourself.” Andrey Turchak, a lawmaker from Putin’s United Russia party, condemn Arkady Dvorkovich’s anti-war stance as “nothing but the very national betrayal, the behaviour of the fifth column, which the president [Putin] spoke about…”. Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin denounced Russians who oppose the war as “traitors”.
On 16 March 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a warning to Russian “traitors” who he said the West wanted to use as a “fifth column” to destroy Russia. He said that Russians should undergo “natural and necessary self-cleansing of society” to rid themselves of “bastards” and pro-Western “traitors.”
Russian authorities encouraged Russians to report their friends, colleagues and family members to the police for expressing opposition to the war in Ukraine.
Exodus of Russians
Main article: Russian emigration following the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Since the beginning of the invasion, more than 300,000 Russians have fled the country, particularly citizens who are opposed to the war, in response to increasing repression and rumors of conscription and martial law. Journalist Boris Grozovski published a Facebook post saying that “We are not tourists, dear citizens of Georgia. We are refugees. Personally, I was wanted by the police in Russia for distributing anti-war petitions… We ran not from bullets, bombs and missiles, but from prison. If I wrote what I write now while in Russia, I would inevitably go to prison for 15–20 years.” Others have fled the country due to concerns about deteriorating conditions within the country, specifically in economical and political terms, coupled with anti-war sentiments and being targeted for past opposition movements. Bolshoi Theater ballerina Olga Smirnova left Russia to continue her career in the Netherlands in protest of the war.
By early April, an estimated 100,000 Russians had fled Russia to Georgia. After three weeks of war, around 14,000 were said to have left for Turkey. Tens of thousands went to Armenia; by 24 May an estimated 108,000 Russian citizens having fled to the country, or Nordic states such as Finland. Thousands are said to have gone to Uzbekistan.