Russian police cracked down on a demonstration near Vladimir Putin’s power center, the Kremlin in Moscow, on Saturday.
The protesters are wives of men who have had to go to Ukraine as part of the mobilization Putin launched in autumn 2022. The women are now demanding their husbands return home from Ukraine.
Among those arrested were 20 journalists, both Russian and international. According to the former, employees from Reuters and AFP are among them.
Demonstrations
After the arrests and the demonstration on Saturday, the soldiers’ wives decided to visit the election campaign headquarters of Putin’s own party, United Russia, in Moscow.
– We asked if we could see the candidate’s programme. Then we were told that the candidate (Vladimir Putin, editor’s note) had registered quite recently, and that his program was therefore not ready yet, writes the soldier’s wives’ activist group Put Domoi on Telegram. The name is Russian for “the way home”.
VISIT PUTIN HEADQUARTERS: Here the soldiers’ wives visit the headquarters of Putin’s United Russia party following the demonstration. Photo: Reuters Show more
They then decided to take matters into their own hands, they write. On notes, they left their message to Putin’s campaign workers:
– We demand that all those mobilized are allowed to come home to their families.
Despite Saturday’s arrests, the activists are warning of new demonstrations on Monday morning, when one of the demonstrators who is still in police custody is due to appear in court.
SET OUT: Russian President Vladimir Putin is apparently deposed during a press conference, December 14. Video: AP. Reporter: Vegard Krüger / Dagbladet TV. view more
Started small
The demonstrations started small, in smaller towns in Siberia, when a number of wives of mobilized soldiers began pasting messages on the back of their cars.
Now it has gone so far that experts refer to them as a headache for Putinwho by all indications will win the presidential election to be held in Russia in March.
On November 7, the first demonstration in Moscow was held. At Teatralnaya Square in Moscow, wives gathered, holding placards demanding that their husbands be allowed to return home.
Within minutes the demonstration was stopped by the police.
In November, the independent news website could Vjorstka report that Putin’s presidential administration instructed regional officials to “put out the fire with money” when the soldiers’ wives first began their demonstrations.
– Can’t hide anymore
Money for wives
Vjorstka citing two unnamed sources in both national and regional authorities in Russia. According to them, the message from Putin’s side is clear: the dissatisfaction of the soldiers’ wives is one of his most important problems in the presidential election campaign.
Thus, according to Vjorstka’s sources, they are recommended to pay out money to the wives, because the Kremlin believes that the wives are not actually waiting for their husbands, but their salaries.
– If it is impossible to solve the problems, pay everyone the maximum amount, one of the sources describes the message as.
What happened to this decision is not known. But it is absolutely clear that the soldiers’ wives have not stopped demonstrating.
Boris Nadezhdin, the only opposition candidate in Russia who is running an active election campaign, has chosen to meet the demonstrating soldiers’ wives in his election campaign.
Cold shower for Putin: – Damn sorry
Demonstrations in Ukraine
It is not only in Russia that soldiers’ wives are asking for their husbands to come home. Demonstrations have also been held in Ukraine by family members of soldiers fighting on the front.
– It’s your turn now, the posters say.
Many Ukrainian soldiers who volunteered at the very beginning of the war are still on the front lines after two years, the Kyiv Independent reports.
– It has been almost two years, and it is the same people who are in the trenches, says Alina, a 29-year-old Ukrainian woman, to the Kyiv Independent at Maidan Square in Kyiv in December.
Her husband is a soldier in the defense of Ukraine.
DEMONSTRATING: The picture was taken during a demonstration in Lviv in western Ukraine on 28 January. Family members of Ukrainian soldiers demand that soldiers be allowed to return home after 18 months of service at the front. Photo: Ukrinform / Shutterstock Show more
Even beyond the New Year, the demonstrations by relatives of soldiers have continued.
In Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, a new proposal for mobilization of the military is being debated these days. In December, Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Reuters that the military has proposed mobilizing an additional 450,000 to 500,000 men to fight against Russia.
The proposal also proposes a tightening of the consequences for evading military service. If the new proposal goes through, those who do not attend the mobilization offices on summons may have their assets frozen and be refused departure from the country.
2024-02-04 23:30:46
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