Russian Opposition Calls For Protest Over Vladimir Putin’s Mobilisation Order. Wednesday saw a call for protests against Russian President Vladimir Putin after the latter authorized the call-up of 300,000 reservists for what Kremlin rival Alexei Navalny described as a failed criminal conflict.
Putin warned the West that he was serious when he declared he would be willing to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia on Wednesday, ordering Russia’s first mobilization since World War Two and supporting a proposal to take large portions of Ukraine.
Putin, according to Navalny, the most well-known opposition figure in Russia who is currently serving a prison sentence, is killing more Russians to further an unsuccessful war.
Navalny stated in a video message from prison that was captured and made public by his attorneys: “It is obvious that the criminal war is becoming worse, deepening, and Putin is trying to engage as many people as possible in this.”
Russian Opposition Calls For Protest Over Vladimir Putin’s Mobilisation Order. According to Navalny, “He wants to stain hundreds of thousands of people in this blood.”
Putin has repressed opposition and the media since the invasion on February 24; thousands have been detained during anti-war demonstrations, and a new legislation mandates 15-year prison terms for individuals who disseminate “false news” about the military.
Russian state television casts critics as traitors who are in the pay of the West. Putin says the country is in a battle with the West over Ukraine which he says is being used by the United States and its allies in an attempt to destroy Russia.
Russia’s anti-war groups called for street protests against the mobilisation order.
“This means that thousands of Russian men – our fathers, brothers and husbands – will be thrown into the meat grinder of war,” the Vesna anti-war coalition said. “Now the war has come to every home and every family.”
It called for Russians to take to the streets in major cities on Wednesday.
In the days after the start of the war, riot police cracked down on nightly street protests detaining at least 16,000 protesters, according to the OVD-Info rights group.
