Five people have been arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg for carrying out an action demanding an end to Russian mobilisation, local media reported on Saturday.
The five individuals were reportedly detained by plainclothes police officers as they laid flowers at a war memorial in central Yekaterinburg on Saturday morning, as part of a series of Russia-wide actions demanding the demobilisation of reservists sent to fight in Ukraine.
Local news outlet It’s My City reported that all five of those arrested had been charged with “violating the rules of conducting a public event.” Two of those detained were members of the youth wing of the liberal party Yabloko, the party’s Yekaterinburg branch said on Telegram.
Photo: OVD-Info
Anti-mobilisation group The Way Home, which has held protests across Russia over the past few weeks, condemned the arrests on Telegram, questioning why police officers had not been in uniform and asking when “laying flowers at memorials became illegal.”
Two people, including one journalist, were detained and later released at a similar protest in central Moscow, where they were reportedly followed and filmed by unidentified individuals.
After laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside the Kremlin, the Moscow protesters went to the office of presidential candidate Vladislav Davankov to discuss his position on demobilisation, independent media outlet SOTA reported.
In St. Petersburg, local media reported that around 20 people had gathered at the city’s Eternal Flame, where they were also filmed amid a heavy police presence.
