Thousands of Russians have been protesting the war in Ukraine, most of them out in the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg. The Russian police has been cracking down on protests, having detained over 5500 of them at various sites in the country according to Reuters.
News of the arrest of one protestor in particular however is raising more than a few eyebrows. On Wednesday, police arrested Yelena Osipova, a septuagenarian and World War II survivor for protesting in St. Petersburg. Yelena is an activist who survived Nazi Germany’s Siege of Leningrad.
Meanwhile, Ilya Yashin a politician from the Russian opposition took to twitter on Wednesday to share pictures of what seems to be children behind bars. He claims that kids were detained for carrying anti-war posters. “Nothing out of the ordinary: just kids in paddy wagons behind an anti-war poster. This is Putin’s Russia, folks. You live here.” he tweeted.
Alexey Navalny, leader of the opposition in Russia has urged citizens to organize demonstrations daily in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Each arrested person must be replaced by two newcomers… If in order to stop the war we have to fill prisons and paddy wagons with ourselves, we will fill prisons and paddy wagons with ourselves.” his spokesperson tweeted on Wednesday.