A movement against the war in Ukraine in Russian society has gained traction, with the support of the country’s intellectuals and celebrities. Even the daughter of Vladimir Putin’s spokesman apparently protested as her critical post was deleted. The challenge of the campaign is to reach the streets.
In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Russian President Vladimir Putin has determined a campaign of repression against any type of activist against the Kremlin. The trigger was the giant acts against the arrest of opponent Alexei Navalni in 2021, who in turn had organized some of the biggest protests against the Kremlin in previous years.
The reaction against the attack on the Kiev government began slowly, while Russian troops were still mobilizing along the neighboring borders. But it was the missiles that hit Ukraine on Thursday that accelerated the protest.
One of the most scintillating additions was Lisa Peskova, one of Peskov’s daughters and a Russian internet celebrity. She posted on the Stories of her Instagram account the “No to war” this Friday (25).
The post was subsequently deleted, leaving it open if it was the victim of a hack. But Lisa has a history of controversy in the country, having been criticized for having defended LGBTQIA+ rights in a country where homophobic policies are the state.
Historic human rights activists took action. Lev Ponomarev, for example, has gathered 500,000 signatures online to a manifesto in which he calls the war insanity. The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitri Mutarov will run the newspaper he runs, Novaia Gazeta, in a Russian-Ukrainian bilingual edition.
A group of 300 professors from the state network published an open letter to Putin, and 150 scientists made an anti-war manifesto. Elena Kovalskaia, director of the Moscow State Theater, was even tougher. She resigned and posted: “It’s impossible to work for a murderer and get paid by him.”
The Yeltsin Centre, which cares for the memory of President Boris Yelstin, the man who nominated Putin to be premier and then president when he resigned in the New Year 2000, called for “an immediate end to hostilities in Ukraine”.
Reporter Elena Chernenko, from the daily Kommersant, lost her credential to cover the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for having organized a letter against the war, signed by about 100 journalists.
The wave has reached the world of celebrities. Oxxxymiron, one of the most popular Russian rappers, whose name is Miron Fiodorov, took to Instagram to protest. “This [a guerra] It’s a crime and a catastrophe,” he said, canceling six sold-out shows he was due to play in Moscow and St.
“I can’t entertain you while Russian missiles fall on Ukraine. When Kiev residents are forced to hide in basements and subways while people are dying.”
The most famous football player in the country, striker Fiodor Smolov, of the Russian national team and Moscow’s Lokomotiv, broke the usual silence imposed by sponsors on the category. “No to war!” he posted on his social media.
Tennis player Andrei Rublev wrote on a camera lens “No war, please”, after winning the Dubai Open this Friday. Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi, one of the most famous Russian chess players, also protested.
On the streets, however, the Kremlin has already shown that it will stick with the hard line. Throughout the fifth, culminating in a demonstration in the center of the capital, protests were recorded in more than 40 cities. The crackdown has done its job, arresting around 1,800 people, according to police violence monitoring NGO OVD-Info.
Asked about this, spokesman Peskov tried to compromise. “The president always listens to people,” he said. “Citizens can have their own views. So we need to explain things better to them. Second, without following proper procedures, these citizens have no legal right to organize demonstrations to express their views,” he said. .
In Russia, it is not possible to carry out acts without prior permission from the municipal authorities. Individual acts are in theory allowed, but even that was attacked on Thursday.
Peskov said the population approves of the action. There are still no polls taken after the week’s events, which began with Putin’s reconnaissance of pro-Russian rebel areas in eastern Ukraine and ended the war.
The most recent poll by the prestigious Centro Levada, an independent institute that is even registered as a “foreign agent” by the Kremlin, indicates that 60% of Russians had a “negative image of Ukraine” – ten points higher than in the previous round, in December.
Half of the 1,600 people heard said they were “scared” by the prospect of war. The poll, taken February 17-21, has a margin of error of plus or minus two points.
