Prominent Russian activist detained after Moscow anti-war protest

Oleg Orlov, of the now-banned Memorial human rights group, held a banner in Pink Sq. to protest towards Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Longtime activist with Memorial and human rights campaigner Oleg Orlov [File: Yuri Kadobnov/AFP]

Oleg Orlov, a distinguished Russian human rights activist, has been detained after staging a one-man protest in Moscow’s Pink Sq. towards Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Members of Memorial, a now-banned human rights organisation of which Orlov had been a frontrunner, shared a video of him on Sunday holding a banner earlier than being taken away by police.

The signal learn, “Our unwillingness to know the reality and our silence makes us conspirators to this crime.”

Фото: Полный ПЦ 2.0 pic.twitter.com/Jc4UFlq9d9

— ОВД-Инфо (@OvdInfo) April 10, 2022

Human rights group OVD-Data additionally reported one different remoted protester – a person arrested in entrance of Moscow’s metropolis corridor for sporting blue and yellow, the colors of Ukraine’s flag.

OVD-Data, which displays political arrests, says greater than 15,000 individuals have been detained at rallies throughout the nation to protest towards the conflict.

Demonstrators taking to the streets danger fines and attainable jail sentences.

Oleg Orlov’s entrance door was beforehand painted over with the letter ‘Z’ – a logo used to indicate help for Russia’s navy motion in Ukraine – and an indication studying ‘collaborator’ [Courtesy of Oleg Orlov/AFP]

In line with Memorial, this was Orlov’s fourth arrest in current instances. His lawyer is with him.

In current weeks, numerous activists have reported acts of intimidation, together with their properties being vandalised.

Orlov himself had his entrance door tagged with “Z”  and his photograph pasted on with the phrase “collaborator”.

The Z image is extensively utilized by Russian authorities and Putin supporters, adorning constructing facades, bus doorways, automobile windscreens and T-shirts.

In late December 2021, Russia’s Supreme Court docket dominated that Memorial needs to be shut down, a part of a sweeping crackdown by authorities on rights activists, impartial media and opposition supporters.

Prosecutors had accused the Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Centre and its mum or dad construction, Memorial Worldwide, of violating Russia’s “international agent” regulation.

The courtroom dominated in favour of the prosecution, which charged on the listening to that Memorial “creates a false picture of the USSR as a terrorist state, whitewashes and rehabilitates Nazi criminals”, referring to the Soviet Union.

Memorial, which has spoken out towards the repression of critics beneath Russian President Vladimir Putin, dismissed the lawsuit towards it as politically motivated.