Since the start of Russian aggression in Ukraine on February 23rd, hundreds of protests have swept across Russia. In quantitative terms, the protests are not as extensive as rallies in Berlin or New York. In qualitative terms, however, they have deep anti-war and anti-authoritarian potential because they are carried out in a country where any kind of dissent is officially prohibited. I am a Russian PhD student based in Leipzig, I spoke with two of my colleagues, both PhD students from St. Petersburg, who shared their protest experiences and emotions with me. They related their thoughts to me about the repression they face under these extraordinary new conditions.

Arrested for protesting against a war

Marina Popova (28) and her husband (28) were caught by police at protests in St. Petersburg on February 28th. Later, Marina explains: “We were "walking" [this is how Russian activists refer to their protest activity on the streets] along Nevsky Prospekt.* Suddenly, a group in helmets ran up from both sides. Those [protesters] who did not have time to run away or hide in the neighbouring shops were surrounded by police. The police took people away, one by one, into avtozak (paddy wagons). I was with my husband. I tried not to show that we knew each other, otherwise, we could be separated and sent to different wagons and police offices.”

Since 2014 all anti-government protests have been illegal under Russian law. That is why Russian police, including internal military forces such as OMON and Rosgvardia, are free to use violence against participants. Any person who goes to a demonstration in Russia, whether it be a mass procession, rally, demonstration, or protest, is potentially going against the state.

Marina says she was surprised that the policeman inside was not as aggressive as usual. “He was not rude, he even tried to joke. We were told not to use our phones, but no one removed them from us. They did not tell us where they were taking us while driving around the city. We were brought to the police office, where we just sat and waited for three hours. Then we were taken to another department and waited another three hours. We reported our situation to OVD-Info, an independent Russian human rights organization that provides support to political prisoners. OVD-info provided a lawyer who came to support us. We also received a parcel with food and basic necessities from OVD-info. After the policeman took our contact details, at about 2 am we were allowed to go home.” How does it come that they have been treated with such empathy?

Empathy and fear on the streets of Russia

Mikhail Kondratiev (25), a historian who studies the Russian Revolution in St. Petersburg, might have an explanation. He has more than five years of protesting experience and even received 15-days in prison as a punishment for protesting in March 2017. During our interview, he tried to compare the current situation in Russia to his experiences protesting in the past.

“The police, the National Guard and the Omon also consist of people and those people are afraid, afraid of the crowd. Policemen are afraid. Some of them are the guys who were drafted into the army and are often sent to the National Guard (18-year-old guys who did not pass the exam and were forced to join the army). And many times I tried to look into the eyes of these guys - I saw indescribable horror in them”, Mikhail said of the security forces.

Most likely, as in the previous protests, the police will mobilize officers from other regions to suppress the protests in St. Petersburg. This practice will most likely be adopted because the local police can show empathy for Petersburgers, which makes it more difficult for them to follow direct orders. Despite all the draconian laws, the police and authorities also have problems. Right now, all the police offices and places where the captured protesters are being held are overcrowded. Soon there will simply be nowhere to take the new protesters and nowhere to keep them. Mikhail concluded, “in the history of modern Russia there have never been protests every day for more than a week.” Indeed, if earlier there was a certain “split” within the Russian protest movement with different groups expressing different positions, now, the movement is gaining momentum, all the protesters are united by a common goal and slogan - “no war!”

What’s next for the protesters?

So, given all of that, what's going to happen to all the people protesting in Russia? Marina and her husband are now waiting for their trial. She tells me, “before the war, for such protests, we would have only received an administrative fine. Now, however, there are new amendments to the criminal and administrative codes.” Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Prosecutor General's Office has equated participation in anti-war rallies with extremism, and this carries the threat of punishment of up to six years in prison.

“On Saturday (March 5th), the police came to our house without warning,” Marina says, “my grandmother opened the door and said that such people do not live here”. In addition to possible punishment by the police, there have been many instances of being punished at work or university in Russia. On Sunday (March 6th), Marina’s mother, Elena, who joined her these days, was fired under pressure from the security department from the pharmaceutical company she worked for. The company somehow knew that Elena was detained at a protest and forced to resign from the company. Yes, she lost her job. With the help of a lawyer, Elena’s mother made sure that the company at least paid her salary for the next month.

Now, many Russians live in fear of persecution. On the one hand, even those people who used to go to protests are now thinking twice about going out. On the other hand, many came out to protest these days for the first time in their lives. But one way or another, many people in Russia are afraid. In the end, I asked if Marina would go out to protest again. She answered, "yes, because it's important to me".

Although the protestors themselves suffer - they lose their jobs, they risk going to prison, or they get physically injured - they do not lose the ability to analyse what is happening to them. It remains to be seen what effect these protests will have, whether they will grow and lead to social change, or whether the repressive Russian state apparatus will be able to contain them

Protesters vs. Russian police – what's next?

Report of my days in prison

5th/6th of March 2022, Berlin