Russia: New clashes at anti-conscription protests – 2,000 citizens detained

Police forces clashed with citizens opposing conscription today in Russia’s southern Dagestan region, in yet another sign of discontent over the president’s decision. Vladimir Putin to send hundreds of thousands more men to fight in Ukraine.

Russia’s first military mobilization since World War II, announced by Putin on Wednesday, has sparked demonstrations in dozens of cities across the country. Public anger appears to be particularly strong in poor ethnic minorities such as Dagestan, a Muslim-majority region on the shores of the Caspian Sea in the mountainous North Caucasus.

Dozens of videos posted on social media showed clashes between residents and police in the regional capital Makhachkala today as protesters chanted “no to war”.

Civil unrest in #Dagestan stemming from Putin’s #mobilization is brewing.
Cop: “Ukraine attacked Russia”
Woman: “It’s Russia that attacked Ukraine” pic.twitter.com/xG40pKULaQ

— Igor Sushko (@igorushko) September 25, 2022

One video shows a group of women pushing off a police officer, while several short videos show violent conflictsincluding police sitting on protesters as police tried to make arrests.

Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the videos, which were widely circulated on Russian social media and by independent media. Reuters was unable to contact police in Dagestan.

WATCH: Police fire into the air during anti-mobilization protest in Russia’s Dagestan pic.twitter.com/moiAjAFqhv

— BNO News (@BNONews) September 25, 2022

The non-governmental organization OVD-Info expressed concern over the footage of “arrests with very harsh means” that took place in Makhachkala.

WATCH: Police fire into the air during anti-mobilization protest in Russia’s Dagestan pic.twitter.com/moiAjAFqhv

— BNO News (@BNONews) September 25, 2022

Earlier today, police officers fired into the air after dozens of protesters in a village in Dagestan had blocked a main road in protest against police officers who were allegedly on their way to give marching papers to more than 100 men from the village, population 8,000, according to video footage.

Dagestan has already paid a heavy human price during the seven-month war. According to a count by the BBC’s Russian service, at least 301 soldiers from Dagestan have been killed – the most of any other Russian region and more than 10 times the number of deaths than Moscow, which has five times the population.

The defense ministry, which said on Wednesday that nearly 6,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since February 24, has not given a casualty count by region.

Arrests

Unauthorized gatherings are illegal under Russian anti-demonstration laws and are rare outside major cities.

More than 2,000 people have been detained at anti-conscription rallies in Russia since Putin announced the move, which the Kremlin calls “partial conscription,” said OVD-Info, which monitors the protests and provides legal aid to those detained.

In an attempt to calm public anger, Dagestan Governor Sergei Melikov said today that “mistakes were made” in the execution of the mobilization in the region, in a post on his Telegram page.

There have been several reports from across Russia of people without military service or parents of young children being called up – despite Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s assurances that they would be exempted.

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