At least 30 people have been detained by Russian law enforcement at an anti-mobilisation protest outside the Kremlin in Moscow, independent Russian news outlets on the scene reported on Saturday.
Dozens of women married to mobilised reservists sent to fight in Ukraine gathered to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Saturday morning, in an act of protest against continued mobilisation in Russia.
The protest, which took place 500 days after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial mobilisation” of Russia's military reserve on 21 September 2022, was estimated to have been attended by around 200 people.
The majority of those arrested were journalists covering the protest rather than participants in the action itself, according to multiple reports. Local media reported that male journalists in press jackets were taken away by police, with detentions reportedly continuing as anti-mobilisation protesters made their way to Putin’s re-election campaign office nearby.
Correspondents from Agence France Press and Der Spiegel were reportedly among those detained.
The protest is the latest in a series of similar actions organised by demobilisation campaign group The Way Home, which has been publicly calling for an end to Russia’s mobilisation policy and a rotation of front line troops.
Russian opposition figures, including jailed opposition politician Alexey Navalny's team, had encouraged Russians to support the protest, calling the demobilisation of drafted soldiers “a direct path to the end of the war.”
