Tom Balmforth

MOSCOW, (Reuters) – Police detained over 1,600 Russians on Thursday in protest against Russia’s multi-pronged military intervention in Ukraine. They also threatened to stop media reports that included what Moscow termed “false” information.

After President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on Thursday morning, Russian celebrities, journalists, television comedians, and footballers opposed it online in acts of careful, unusual disobedience.

The OVD Info rights monitor reported that police had already detained 1,667 protestors at 53 cities by 1939 GMT. This is the largest number of arrests since the last year’s execution of Alexei Navalny, a Krelin critic, who was jailed. It also marks the beginning of an ice age for activism.

Protesters ignored a warning from the Investigative committee on Thursday, which was basically a Russian reply to the FBI. It explicitly warned that criminal action could be taken against anyone who participates in or calls for protests.

Marina Litvinovich from Moscow, an activist and writer on Telegram, said that she had been detained while on her way to the house. She wrote this after calling out Russians through a Facebook post (NASDAQ:) Thursday morning.

We will clean up the mess over many years. Not even us. She said, “But our children and grandchildren”, as she declared the protest. We only see the pain of a dying person. Russia is suffering from agony, Alas.

Many hundreds of protestors gathered in Moscow, St Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg to chant slogans such as “no war!” Holding up signs made of wood. One man waved the Ukrainian flag.

Moscow police claimed that 600 persons had been detained. The authorities in Moscow have banned protests, citing COVID-19.

Navalny, who was in jail at the hearing, condemned the war, claiming it was a Kremlin attempt to distract attention from domestic issues like poverty. However, it wasn’t clear if he fully understood the scale of the invasion.

“I am against this war… The war was started to cover the theft of Russian citizens…. And this war will result in an enormous number victims on both sides, destroyed lives and continued impoverishment for Russian citizens,” said the anti-corruption activist.

Fear and pain are two sides of the same coin

Sometimes, the opposition to war was not directed at Putin. Putin’s verbal attack against Ukraine Monday in speech set the tone for Thursday.

Unusually mainstream characters like Ivan Urgant, Russia’s greatest television comedian, wrote in Instagram, “Fear and pain.” “NO TO WAR.”

Maxim Galkin is a TV presenter and singer who said that he has been in contact with his relatives and friends from Ukraine ever since the morning. What I feel is beyond words! This is how it can be possible There is no justification for war. “No to war!”

Fedor Stolov (footballer for Russia’s national soccer team), was another. Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the world’s number one tennis player; and Dmitry Muratov (nobel laureate), chief editor at Novaya Gazeta.

They posted an Instagram picture of a black, blank photo to protest the government.

Russia’s telecom regulator warned media organizations on Thursday to not circulate “false” information about Moscow’s military intervention against Ukraine. It also threatened to ban the dissemination of such content.

Roskomnadzor, Russia’s State Communications Regulator Roskomnadzor stated in a statement it considers information from official Russian sources reliable.