Life In Russia Under Sanctions: Empty Stores, Rising Prices, Personal Tragedy

[TomWilm]

10. Movement of Conscientious Objectors in Russia

In the previous letter, we told stories of Russian anti-war protests, pickets, and artsy performances. Many provocative performances continue to attract attention— of the society, the media, and the police. For example, a group of young Muscovites held an anti-militarist action ‘Russian Peace’ (named after a nationalist Russian ideology) before the building of the Bolshoi theater, one of Moscow’s most famous cultural hallmarks; later they were taken into a psychiatric ward by the police.

Unknown activists from Nizhny Novgorod put up a poster ‘Dick to war’ (Хуй войне; a popular slogan which means something like ‘Fuck war’) on the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is responsible for the police, while a citizen of Novosibirsk painted the front porch of the mayor’s office with blue and yellow colours, which comprise the flag of Ukraine (this cost him 93,000 rubles).

A citizen of Ufa was fined for picketing with a pacifist quote from a song by an American rapper Tupac Shakur— the police were not fans of the artist. An artist Danila Tkachenko planned to launch blue and yellow smoke at the center of Moscow during the militarist parade of May 9 but this plan was somehow intercepted by the police (the activist fled beforehand but his friends and relatives were terrorized by the police later). ...

- Russia: Standing against the militarist festival.
https://wri-irg.org/en/story/2022/russia-standing-against-militarist-festival