‘War is Death’: a Digest of Russian Protests

“War is death. In 2020 and 2021 as a result of the coronavirus epidemic, we lost elderly loved ones—grandmothers, grandfathers, mentors, teachers. We went through so much pain, anxiety, and mourning, and just as we were starting to get back on our feet, starting to live again... then the war started. Now we are losing young people. More death, more grief, more pain. And I don’t understand this at all: why is this war being waged?”. This is an extract from St Petersburg artist Sasha Skochilenko’s final statement before her sentencing hearing.

She was accused of spreading “fake news” about the Russian army’s behavior in Ukraine and was sentenced to seven years in a penal colony. Skochilenko replaced price tags in a supermarket in her native St Petersburg on March 31 2022 with small pieces of paper urging an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine and criticising the authorities.

People who came to support Sasha in court on November 16 could be heard chanting “Shame!”.

In St. Petersburg, an activist went on a solitary march to the Egyptian Bridge with a poster in support of the St. Petersburg artist.

In Kirov, activist Ivan Zhizhnevsky and his wife Anastasia marched together in protest. The police were waiting for the activists at the picket site. Law enforcers photographed the picketers, but did not detain them.

On 11 November Kaliningrad activist Yana Drobnokhod went on a solitary picket in support of RusNews journalist Maria Ponomarenko and ex-governor of Khabarovsk Krai, Sergey Furgal.

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Pickets in support of journalist Maria Ponomarenko, who was sentenced to six years in prison for spreading military “fakes”, were also held in other cities.

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St. Petersburg activist Vitaly Ioffe went on a solitary picket with a placard: “Maria Ponomarenko. 6 years for telling the truth about the war”.

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Another St. Petersburg activist, Dmitry Kuzmin, held a picket near Kazan Cathedral; he stood on Nevsky Prospekt for more than three hours with a placard “Free Maria Ponomarenko”, after which he was detained by law enforcers.

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On 13 November, local activist Georgy Kakabadze held a solitary picket in support of Maria Ponomarenko in Vladivostok. According to him, passing motorists honked their horns and gave him a thumbs up as a sign of approval.

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In Makhachkala, Magomed Magomedov, editor of the publication “Chernovik”, went on another solitary picket with a poster reading “Freedom to journalist Abdulmumin Gadzhiev”.

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Pickets and rallies organized by the female relatives of mobilised soldiers were held across Russia. In Moscow, authorities refused to allow women to hold a rally in Teatralnaya Square. Similar rallies were refused approval in Novosibirsk, Chelyabinsk and Krasnoyarsk. On November 13, a manifesto appeared in the Telegram channel run by the movement that works to bring home mobilised men, “Way Home”; one of its demands was full demobilisation. The authors of the manifesto oppose “concluding that all mobilised persons are in the combat zone voluntarily and consciously”. Conscription is coercion because refusing conscription leads to criminal prosecution.

In Novosibirsk, residents gathered in Narymsky Square near a monument to victims of political repression. Protestors expressed anger at the governor’s proposal to ban large gatherings in 37 different locations across the region.

In the city…

Graffiti with a quote from Sasha Skochilenko’s final statement appeared on Dmitrovskaya Street in Moscow.

An anti-war sticker in Moscow was published in journalist Roman Souper’s Telegram channel. In the channel, a photo of a lighthouse in Vladivostok with the inscription: “No to war” was also published:

An anti-war sticker was seen in St. Petersburg by readers of the “#Wake up!” Telegram channel, with the inscription: “Chekist scum unleashes massacre!”:

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The anti-war peace movement “Green Ribbon” published photos of ribbons adorning various lampposts and walls. The green ribbons, a symbol of protest, were seen in St. Petersburg, Tyumen and Samara, as well as anti-war inscriptions on buildings.

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Inscriptions: “Down with the Chekists”, “No to Mogilisation” (mogila meaning grave in Russian) in St. Petersburg and Krasnodar.

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Anti-war leaflets of the “Spring” movement in Omsk.

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Photos of homemade anti-war posters put up in St. Petersburg.

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In Orsk, “Spring” movement leaflets have been put up around the city:

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Russians put up leaflets demanding that soldiers be brought home. They oppose bloodshed through their street graffiti, organise the “Forgotten Toy” campaign (where toys with anti-war inscriptions are left in public places) and distribute anti-war messages on banknotes. Photos were sent to the movement from residents of Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, Tyumen and Kaliningrad:

The inscriptions on the banknotes usually read: “You are not alone! Don’t be silent! No to war!”; “Peace to the world!” “No to war! The enemy is in the Kremlin!"

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The Spring movement’s project “Visible Protest” also publishes photos of propaganda posters covered with red paint from Moscow and Ussuriysk.

Sabotage

Near Ryazan, 19 carriages of a goods train derailed at the Rybnoye crossing (Ryazan Oblast). The locomotive of the train was largely undamaged, but the rails were left completely mangled. The assistant driver received minor injuries. Later it was reported that the explosion was set off by two IEDs, each with more than three kilograms of TNT explosives inside. The improvised explosive devices were not remotely controlled and had been placed under the sleepers.

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Ivan Svistov, 50, came from Stepano-Sachensky farm and threw three Molotov cocktail bottles through the window of the military enlistment office on Kommunisticheskaya Street in the town of Morozovsk, Rostov region. They bounced off the fence and failed to start a fire. He was detained by police.

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On 9 November, a 51-year-old muscovite approached the military commissariat of the Kuzminsky district, saying that he had an explosive device with him, threatening to detonate it. The muscovite was detained and searched. The “explosive device with a timer” turned out to be a home weather station with a portable speaker. There was no bomb.

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Two pensioners were detained for attempting to set fire to military recruitment centres in the Sverdlovsk region on 9 November. One of them, a 69-year-old woman, wanted to set fire to a military recruitment office in Asbest, but mistakenly set fire to the porch of the polyclinic located next door. Another pensioner, born in 1968, tried to set fire to a military enlistment office in Kamensk-Uralsky, but law enforcers stopped her actions.

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A 24-year-old resident of Kabardino-Balkaria, Daniil K., tried to set fire to a military recruitment office in the town of Prokhladny on 14 November. A small fire started but a watchman quickly put out the flames. The young man was detained by the police. Daniil said that he started the fire because he had recently been called up for military service.

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A 75-year-old pensioner was detained in St. Petersburg for arson. According to “Fontanka”, surveillance cameras captured the woman standing not far from the military recruitment office and throwing a bottle that contained a flammable mixture. The bottle hit a minibus parked nearby. The fire was put out and the elderly woman was taken to the police station. When questioned, she reportedly said she had started the fire in protest.

Persecution

Elena Markova, a 61-year-old resident from the Moscow suburbs, who was charged with a “terrorist” act, died in a pre-trial detention centre on 1 November. Markova had reportedly been among the organisers of the “Heavenly Regiment” demonstration: along with the “Artpodgotovka” movement, the two activist groups allegedly planned to launch balloons with pieces of foil attached on May 9, supposedly hampering the work of air defence systems. However, this demonstration was reported exclusively by pro-government media.

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On 7 November, criminal proceedings were brought against activist Svetlana Marina for commenting on the death of the pro-Kremlin military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky from the city of Kirov. In a short video she lamented the fact that his photo had been placed at the Eternal Flame. Marina called the war correspondent “a criminal, murderer and robber”, and the organisers of his memorial “morons”.

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Alexei Arbuzenko, a resident of Togliatti, was sentenced to 6 years in a penal colony for defacing posters. The man, together with his son, threw stones and clods of mud at roadside posters that depicted Special Military Operation fighters.

Culture

The Russian group “Yav”, specialising in street art, has created a new poster — a work called “They tied us up”. The poster depicts a man whose hands are bound in military uniform. The rope patterns on his back are folded into an inverted five-pointed star into a bundle at the bottom that tie the soldier’s hands together. The art-activists suggested one interpretation: the star represents the Kremlin star, symbolising how Putin’s power led the military and security forces into a dead end, from which it will be very difficult to escape.

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The telegram channel Mediapartisans reported on a new work called “Swamp” by St Petersburg artist Misha Marker: “If you follow a leader who has no head, the consequences are inevitable.

The report was prepared by Memorial volunteers from information in SOTA, OVD-Info; 7x7 Horizontal Russia; Feminist Anti-War Resistance; Vesna, Aktivatika and other sources.