Speaking of antiwar protesters….
I do go on and on about the evils of war and the war in Ukraine….I try to explain why the anti-war movement in the US is a limp dick.
That aside do the Russians have the nuts to stand up and protest this god awful war?
The easy answer is ….yes they do! And it is more vocal than the Americans.
Given the Russian government’s brutal repression of dissent, the level of Russian resistance to the Putin regime’s war on Ukraine is quite remarkable.
Beginning on the evening of February 24, 2022, the date of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many thousands of Russians, defying threats from the authorities, staged nonviolent antiwar demonstrations across their nation. On the first night alone, police made 1,820 arrests of peace demonstrators in 58 Russian cities. Over the ensuing weeks, the mass protests continued, with the intrepid demonstrators chanting or holding up signs reading “No to War.” As the authorities viewed any mention of “war” as a crime, even elementary school children were arrested when they said the forbidden slogan. Some peace demonstrators took to holding up blank signs, but they, too, were arrested. By March 13, according to OVD-Info, a Russian human rights group, the police had made at least 14,906 arrests of these and other Russian peace demonstrators.
Russian war resisters also engaged in numerous other activities. Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at Channel One Russia, disrupted the station’s main news program by holding up a sign reading: “NO WAR. Stop the war. Do not believe the propaganda.” Prominent cultural figures and politicians spoke out publicly against the war. By March 1, an online petition protesting the invasion had drawn a million supporters. Signers of open letters that called for stopping the war included 30,000 technology workers, 6,000 medical workers, 3,400 architects, more than 4,300 teachers, more than 17,000 artists, 500 scientists, and 2,000 actors and other creative figures. Other activists posted antiwar stickers in neighborhoods, replaced supermarket labels with protest statements, and even wrote peace messages on currency. Most startlingly, Russian soldiers began refusing to fight in Ukraine.
Naturally, the authorities were infuriated by this resistance and determined to crush it. Demonstrations were brutally suppressed through arrests, huge fines, and violence against activists. To bolster the legal basis for repression, the Russian parliament passed laws that provided 10 years imprisonment for spreading “fake” news about the armed forces and 5 years imprisonment for “discrediting the army.” In mid-March, Vladimir Putin publicly denounced “the scum and the traitors” who opposed his war policy and promised that the Russian people would “spit them out” like insects who had flown into their mouths. This “necessary self-cleansing of society will only strengthen our country,” he promised.
Homage to Russian War Resisters
I am glad to see that there are those with principles and nuts that will stand up to the policies of Vlad the Invader….
Maybe the US will find its guts and take to the streets….that is if they can back away from the game console or Twatter or Tki Tak long enough to make a difference.
I have my doubts.
Any thoughts that you would like to share? (Please make it about antiwar protesters)
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
It will not be very long before all the antiwar protesters in Russia will be conscripted to serve in the Ukraine war or they will be held in special re-education facilities until the end of hostilities at which time they will be shipped to Siberia’s labor camps if their re-education does not take effect.
They are aware and they still have more nuts than Americans. chuq
Everybody has more nuts than America to hear some people tell it but I will take America over everybody else every time.
It takes no spine to turn a blind eye…and Americans are master at it. chuq
None of us is going to change a damned thing regardless of how much we banter about issues.
And we never as long as we believe that. chuq
and it is pretty apparent that we are going to believe that for a long time yet.
Until a spine is found. chuq
Or until a spine is removed —
That is what the gulag is for….chuq
In terms of obvious consequences, what hard leftists really mean with their demand to “stop the war in Ukraine” is “stop helping Ukraine defend itself.” As they gloss over well-documented Russian atrocities, Putin’s declared goals in Ukraine, and the nakedly colonial nature of the invasion, there’s never a moral imperative to their self-styled anti-war stance. This allows only one logical conclusion: It’s not war these leftists oppose, but the fact that there is a war in which one side enjoys U.S. support.
Not so John….but there needs to be a limit to the cash we piss away on a so-called war….why does think that all Leftists hate Ukraine…that is a typical GOP slogan and meme to keep the corruption flowing. chuq
“Not so” here is a matter of agenda …denial is a great defense but it is not always accurate — denial or affirmation always depends on either bias or agenda.
Only if you have half a brain…..bias is the agenda. chuq
In human nature, there is always inescapable bias.
I have heard that for decades….I use ti believe it was untrue but now with social media you may be right. chuq
To be fair, Russia should be more anti-war (in Ukraine)….since that nation invaded another. I hope they’re successful.
Me as well chuq
I think there is little stomach in most western countries for anti-war protests in this century. People will still march for better pay, or because of social injustice, but Ukraine mostly has huge support everywhere. Especially in Britain.
(Good report on the BBC earlier about Serbia. Massive support there (80%+) for Russia against Ukraine. I don’t think you can access BBC i-player there, but this is the website report.)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64674133
Best wishes, Pete.
If you are arrested here for protesting as long it was not violent it is a misdemeanor and a wrist slap…..but in Russia it is the gulag chuq
Or a convenient high window.
LOL There is a bunch who suffer from “Falling Russian Syndrome”…..chuq
People who waste their time marching for anything are accomplishing nothing but exposing themselves to the weather and to the night sticks and tear gas of the police state.
Expressing your principles is never a waste of time chuq
A pack of noisy creatures yelling and screaming and waving their signs do nothing but make static noise that legislators always ignore. Fruitless and useless endeavor!