More than 1,000<\/u> antiwar protesters were arrested in Russia on Wednesday, following President Vladimir Putin’s decision to force up to 300,000 reservists back into military service as his war on Ukraine falters.<\/p>\n
In a recorded address<\/a>, Putin described the move as a “partial mobilization” of Russian citizens with some prior military training, but, as the Russian exile news site Meduza reported<\/a>, a new law enacted this week appears to give the president the right to call for a wider, general mobilization. Most Russian men of military age are legally considered reservists following a mandatory year of military service in their youth.<\/p>\n Michael Kofman, an expert on the Russian armed forces, observed<\/a> that Putin’s order, which also indefinitely extends the contracts of soldiers who volunteered to fight in Ukraine, “might help Moscow stem the deteriorating quantity of the force, but not the deteriorating quality of the force [and] its morale.”<\/p>\n\n At least 1,386 protesters were arrested at demonstrations across the country, according to OVD-Info<\/a>, a human rights group that monitors political persecution in Russia.<\/p>\n There were more than 500 arrests in both St. Petersburg and Moscow, where protesters chanted “No to war,” “Send Putin to the trenches,” and “Russia without Putin.”<\/p>\n Protests in Moscow and St Petersburg today have grown pretty large. People chanting \u201cNo to War!\u201d Dozens of arrests reported pic.twitter.com\/9F4E5VIy9E<\/a><\/p>\n — Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) September 21, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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