Xavier Colas Moscow

Moscow

Updated Saturday, February 3, 2024-14:07

  • Live Ukraine at War

Russian police have arrested more than 20 people after a group of conscript wives gathered near the Kremlin. This entity, called Camino a Casa, demands the return of its relatives from the front, where many have been for more than a year. Journalists and human rights activists were detained at the end of the event, as they passed in front of Red Square.

All of the detainees had their phones taken away.

The civil liberties channel OVD-Info reports 27 detainees. At least one of them participated in the rally. Many of those arrested are journalists from media outlets such as Sota, Kommersant, Otoroshno Novosti, France Press and the German magazine Spiegel, as well as human rights activists.

The action, timed to

coincide with the 500th day since the announcement of the mobilization

in Russia, was set for twelve noon Moscow time. The women arrived at the Kremlin walls ten minutes after the changing of the guard, there they left flowers in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and immediately gave some interviews. Afterwards they crossed the Plaza de la Revolución but without trying to enter the Red Square, which is below. The first arrests of journalists have taken place there.

Maria Andreeva,

leader of Camino a Casa, condemned the war and stated that "a special military operation is a great tragedy that occurred between two brother peoples." Later, after crossing the square, she tried to prevent several detainees from being taken away by standing in front of the police van. She told the police that inside was a relative of someone recruited to go to the front:

"He hasn't done anything wrong, check the documents and let him go

. "

But a few moments later the agents pushed her and the van moved away from her. "Practically all the male journalists have been detained," the Sota channel warned as they were taken to the police station: its correspondent was saved for not wearing the identification vest.

PROVOCATORS AND INCOGNITO AGENTS


Previously, the NEXTA Live Telegram channel reported that provocateurs were recruited from groups of students, who promised to pay 2,000 rubles (20 euros at the current exchange rate) for participating. During the protest

a man confronted the women

to tell them that Ukraine was entirely to blame for what was happening. Several plainclothes officers wearing balaclavas filmed journalists while they did their jobs.

Camino a Casa organizes similar events every Saturday (this event is the ninth in a row). On a fairly sunny morning,

about 200 people

attended this time an event that took place calmly and without shouting any slogans. The day before he had the support of the opposition politician Maxim Kats and Alexei Navalni's team.

The Road Home movement demands that Russian President

Vladimir Putin

sign a decree ending the mobilization, signed in October 2022 and which has not been canceled. A participant in the protest against the mobilization was detained near the monument to the unknown soldier, where the wives of those mobilized had left roses meticulously complying with the shifts and protocols established by the police. As the arrested man himself explained to OVD-Info, when asked why he was detained, the police responded: "You'll find out at the police station."

At the police station, the police announced that

the journalists would soon be released

, except for those who work for media classified as foreign agents. Shortly afterwards, on the central Pokrovka street, the police detained seven journalists who were covering a demonstration against the mobilization.