International
Over 2,500 detained at anti-war protests in Russia – monitoring group
LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) – More than 2,500 people were detained at protests on Sunday in 49 cities across Russia against President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to an independent Russian-based protest monitoring group.
Thousands of protesters chanted “No to war!” and “Shame on you!”, according to videos posted on social media by opposition activists and bloggers. The OVD-Info protest monitoring group said 2,502 people had been arrested.
Dozens of protesters in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg were shown being detained. One protester there was shown being beaten on the ground by police in riot gear. A mural in the city showing President Vladimir Putin was defaced.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the footage and photographs on social media or to reach Russia’s interior ministry for comment.
“The screws are being fully tightened – essentially we are witnessing military censorship,” Maria Kuznetsova, OVD-Info’s spokeswoman, told Reuters by telephone from Tbilisi.
“We are seeing rather big protests today, even in Siberian cities where we only rarely saw such numbers of arrests.”
The ministry warned on Saturday that any attempt to hold unauthorized protests would be prevented and the organizers held to account. It did not immediately publish data on arrests.
Police used loudspeakers to tell a small group of protesters in Khabarovsk: “Respected citizens, you are taking part in an unsanctioned public event. We demand you disperse.”
Some Russian state-controlled media carried short reports about the protests.
Russia’s RIA news agency said the Manezhnaya Square in Moscow, adjoining the Kremlin, had been “liberated” by police who had arrested some participants of an unsanctioned protest against the military operation in Ukraine.
CHURCH SUPPORT
RIA also showed footage of what appeared to be supporters of the Kremlin driving along the embankment in Moscow with Russian flags and displaying the “Z” and “V” markings used by Russian forces on tanks operating in Ukraine.
Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, said Russian values were being tested by the West, which offered only excessive consumption and the illusion of freedom.
Putin, Russia’s paramount leader since 1999, calls the invasion, launched on Feb. 24, a “special military operation”. He says it is aimed at defending Ukraine’s Russian-speaking communities against persecution and preventing the United States from using Ukraine to threaten Russia.
The West has called his arguments a baseless pretext for war and imposed sanctions that aim to cripple the Russian economy. The United States, Britain, and some other NATO members have supplied arms to Ukraine.
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny had called for protests on Sunday across Russia and the rest of the world against the invasion.
About 2,000 people attended an anti-war protest in Kazakhstan’s biggest city Almaty, according to videos posted on social media. Reuters was unable to independently verify the posts.
The crowd shouted slogans such as “No to war!” and obscenities directed at Putin while waving Ukrainian flags.
Blue and yellow balloons were placed in the hand of a statue of Lenin towering over the small square where the rally took place.
The Russian state polling agency VTsIOM said Putin’s approval rating had risen 6 percentage points to 70% in the week to Feb. 27. FOM, which provides research for the Kremlin, said his rating had risen 7 percentage points to 71% in the same period.
The United States has imposed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on Palestinian rights, due to her stance against Israel.1 US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the decision on Wednesday (July 9), stating that Albanese’s “political and economic attacks” against the United States and Israel would no longer be tolerated.2
Rubio posted on X (formerly Twitter), “We will always stand by our allies’ right to self-defense.”
Albanese has a long history of submitting reports to the UN critical of Israel. She has notably labeled Israel an ‘apartheid state’ and described Hamas’s violence as ‘not unexpected’. Furthermore, she previously proposed accusing the United States of international crimes for President Donald Trump’s actions related to Iranian nuclear facilities.
Albanese has also voiced criticism against American defense technology companies. She has faced accusations of antisemitism, particularly for a past remark suggesting US foreign policy was controlled by a ‘Jewish lobby’, though she later retracted this comment.4
Anne Bayefsky, President of the human rights organization Human Rights Voices, welcomed the sanction, stating, “The US has finally taken action. This measure against Albanese’s incitement to violence and her attempts to deny Israel’s existence is timely.”
Israel also welcomed the sanctions. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideo Sa’ar remarked, “It is time for the UN to open its eyes.” Danny Danon, Israel’s UN envoy, added that Albanese had “damaged the credibility of the United Nations.”
Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, called it a “courageous decision,” noting that a UN official had never before been sanctioned in this manner.
There has been no immediate reaction from the United Nations regarding the sanction.
Twelve Turkish soldiers have died after inhaling methane gas during a mission in a cave in northern Iraq, the Turkish Ministry of National Defense announced on Monday. The incident occurred on Sunday during an operation to recover the remains of a soldier who went missing in the cave in 2022 after being killed by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters.
“Four other of our heroic comrades in arms, affected by methane gas, have died … bringing the total number of victims to 12,” the ministry stated in a post on X. Nineteen soldiers were exposed to the gas inside a site previously used as a hospital by armed fighters. The condition of the remaining seven soldiers was not immediately clear, though Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wished them a speedy recovery on X.
The soldiers were conducting a sweep operation inside a cave at an altitude of 852 meters (2,795 feet) in the Metina region. This mission is part of Turkiye’s ongoing Operation Claw-Lock, which targets PKK positions in northern Iraq. The PKK is designated as a terrorist group by Turkiye, the European Union, and the United States.
While methane gas is not considered toxic, it can be deadly in confined spaces due to the risk of suffocation. The ministry has not yet clarified how the gas accumulated inside the cave.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his “great sorrow” over the incident and extended condolences to the families of the fallen soldiers. Defense Minister Yasar Guler has traveled to the area to oversee inspections and attend ceremonies for the deceased.
Japan has conducted its first-ever land-to-ship missile test within its own territory, a move the Ministry of Defense described as “extremely important for enhancing military capability in the current difficult security situation.”
The ‘Type-88’ missile was test-fired by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) from a military base on the northern island of Hokkaido on Tuesday (local time), hitting an area off the Pacific coast, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Traditionally, Japan has conducted such live-fire drills at U.S. military bases, but these are often expensive and involve a limited number of personnel. The decision to conduct drills domestically comes as a weaker Japanese Yen has further increased these costs.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi stated in a Wednesday press briefing that conducting live-fire exercises at home allows for the training of a greater number of troops and aids in the defense of islands and other areas. While he maintained the exercise was not directed at any specific country, Japan has previously identified China as its “biggest security threat.”
Experts suggest that Beijing’s push for regional dominance, particularly its assertive stance on Taiwan, has led Japan to significantly alter its defense strategy. Japan is currently working towards a long-term plan to increase its defense budget to 2% of GDP, aligning with NATO standards. Concurrently, it is strengthening its military alliance with the United States to enable a swift response to regional tensions and potential threats.