Category Archives: Putin

In fact, President Biden announced expanded sanctions on Thursday, aimed at Russias oligarch class. Many of those named including Dmitri S. Peskov, Mr. Putins spokesman and one of his close advisers rank among his most influential defenders and the beneficiaries of the system he has created.

Mr. Biden, reading a prepared statement and taking no questions, said the sanctions have had a profound impact already.

A few hours after he spoke, S&P dropped Russias credit rating to CCC-, the credit-rating agency said in a statement. That is far below the junk bond levels Russia was ranked at a few days after the invasion, and just two notches above a warning that the country was going into default.

It suggested that Mr. Putins effort to sanctions-proof his economy had largely failed. And at least for now, there is no discernible off-ramp for the Russian leader short of declaring a cease-fire or pulling back his forces steps he has so far shown no interest in taking.

At a news briefing at the White House on Thursday afternoon, Jen Psaki, the press secretary, said that she knew of no efforts to show Mr. Putin a way out. I think right in this moment, they are marching toward Kyiv with a convoy and continuing to take reportedly barbaric steps against the people of Ukraine. So now is not the moment where we are offering options for reducing sanctions.

Yet a senior State Department official, asked about the debates inside the administration on the risks ahead, said there were nuances in the administrations approach that point to possible outs for the Russian leader.

March 6, 2022, 9:33 p.m. ET

Mr. Bidens policy, the official said, was not one of seeking regime change in Russia. The idea, he said, was to influence Mr. Putins actions, not his grip on power. And the sanctions, the official noted, were designed not as a punishment, but as leverage to end the war. They will escalate if Mr. Putin escalates, the official said. But the administration would calibrate its sanctions, and perhaps reduce them, if Mr. Putin begins to de-escalate.

Read the original here:

Washingtons Newest Worry: The Dangers of Cornering Putin - The New York Times

LVIV, UkraineAn awful screeching sound fills the air as fighter jets zip low and fast over the skies of Lviv Oblast, one of the few regions safe enough for the Ukrainian Air Force to fly uncontested as the battle for the sky rages across Ukraine. It is an ominous warning that fighting could be coming to a part of Ukraine that was previously untouched.

Bombs and rockets have been smashing indiscriminately into civilian and military targets throughout the country, as Vladimir Putin takes revenge on the nation he sees as insolent enough to defy him.

But when the daily air raid sirens ring out over the western city of Lviv, as rockets fly in from neighboring Belarus, no one pays it much attention. The bunkers are barely a few feet underground, a stark contrast to the 70-meter-deep monstrosities in Kyiv. I reckon the entrance would just collapse under a bomb one colleague remarked to me, we would be safer in the middle of the road.

In the relative safety of Western Ukraine, the war feels far away and the scenes of carnage from Kharkiv and Kyiv so surreal that they could come from a film. It still hasnt sunk in with us here yet. The war is still far, says Katya, a barista at a coffee shop in central Lviv. The residents are preparing for the upcoming battlemany civilian buildings are now sandbagged; Czech hedgehog anti-tank fortifications are laid all over the streets while checkpoints are being rapidly set up at all entrances to the city. The city has recently banned the sale of all booze, with authorities saying citizens need to keep their wits about them for the fight ahead.

In the film shown so far, Ukraine, the plucky underdog, has been a force to be reckoned with against the Vladimir Putin behemoth, bravely repelling Russian assaults on its major cities.

Members of the territorial defense battalion set up a machine gun and organize a military redoubt on February 25, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Anastasia Vlasova/Getty

There is no shortage of heroism here. The Ghost of Kyiv who allegedly shot down six Russian fighter jets on the first day, or the border guards of Snake Island who told a Russian warship go fuck yourself!, or the man who carried a mine out from under a bridge with a lit cigarette hanging from his mouth. Some of these stories have turned out to be dubious, or oversold, but they have had an extraordinary morale-boosting effect on the population. If the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense figures are to be believed, Russian forces have suffered tremendous casualties.

It is very difficult to independently confirm the figures, but U.S. officials have confirmed that the Russians have at least lost several thousand men. Locals certainly believe them.

A member of Ukrainian forces patrols the streets at Maidan square in Kyiv, on February 27, 2022.

ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty

Russian coordination and logistics have been a mess from start to finish. A 40-mile-long Russian armored convoy on its way to Kyiv has turned into a massive traffic jam, left stuck on a highway and burning through food and fuel. Ambitious airborne and amphibious landings, including on the Hostomel airport outside Kyiv, have been easily repelled by the Ukrainians.

Along with an unprecedented and united Western diplomatic response, all this has added up to an impression that the Ukrainians have, at least for now, an upper hand in the conflict, and that Putin is on his way out. But the dictator in the Kremlin is far from done with the brave Ukrainian people, and he is yet to unleash the most fearsome weapons in his arsenal.

Im afraid that there are very few examples in recent history... where an invader has taken a major city by force against a determined defense without using heavy fires and doing extensive damage.

Now that Russias efforts to deliver a quick knockout punch to the Ukrainian government has failed, military experts are concerned that his next steps could be far more brutal. Already, the Russian forces have started using much more indiscriminate tactics, including a rocket attack on an apartment block in Kharkiv that killed at least 18 people and injured dozens more this week. Then, a rocket attack on a TV tower in Kyiv killed five civilians, including a Ukrainian journalist.

Im afraid that there are very few examples in recent historyBaghdad in 2003 being one of themwhere an invader has taken a major city by force against a determined defense without using heavy fires and doing extensive damage, said Justin Bronk, the research fellow for air power and technology at the U.K.s Royal United Services Institute. He told The Daily Beast that the Russians have not yet used the overwhelming superiority of their air force. In a report for RUSI, he wrote: The fact that there have only been a few confirmed sightings of Russian fixed wing sorties over Ukraine should not obscure the fact that the VKS fixed wing fleets remain a potentially highly destructive force and one that could be unleashed at short notice over the coming days.

There have also been reports of the Russians moving thermobaric missile-launchers, which fire rocket explosives that set the air around them on fire. These weapons, considered illegal under the Geneva Conventions, are many times more powerful than traditional explosive weapons that have been seen in Ukraine so far. If they are used, it would suggest that the Kremlin is willing to raze the historic cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv to the ground and inflict extraordinary numbers of civilian casualties in the process.

Michael Kofman, an expert on the Russian military, wrote on Twitter that The initial Russian operation was based on terrible assumptions about Ukraines willingness and ability to fight, and an unworkable concept of operations. Moscow badly miscalculated use of fires has been limited compared to how the Russian military typically operates. Sadly, I think this will change.

One nation that is well aware of the dangers of false optimism in the early days of a war is Armenia. At the beginning of their war with Azerbaijan over the Armenian-populated territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in late 2020, there was a huge swell of patriotism and a belief that because of their superior motivation, they would ultimately triumph. They ended up losing badly and ceding large amounts of territory they controlled to the Turkish-backed Azeri forces. They now look very cynically on the way the situation in Ukraine has been portrayed.

I see many parallels between what happened in Armenia and what is happening in Ukraine, said Ani Meljumyan, the Armenia correspondent for Euronet.

Armenians also were fighting for an ancestral homeland in what they called Artsakh, against a ruthless enemy with higher numbers and better technology. Like Ukrainians, they believed until the end in their inevitable victory.

The words in Zelenskys speeches, the way he dresses and talks, are identical to Pashinyan, she told The Daily Beast, referring to Armenias populist president, who led the country during the Karabakh war. She said that Armenian authorities had frequently presented false optimism to the people, while secretly knowing that the war was going very badly.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the West on March 3, 2022, to increase military aid to Ukraine, saying Russia would advance on the rest of Europe otherwise.

Sergei SUPINSKY /AFP via Getty

Meljumyan burst out laughing when she heard that Zelensky had used the slogan We Will Win, which Pashinyan had used in Armenia right up to the moment of defeat. The phrase We Will Win is such a joke in Armenia, it is what you use if you want to insult someone! It is the phrase you use to represent an official lie!

There is no evidence that Ukrainian officials are hiding the true military situation, but many of the similarities are reason enough for worry. In Karabakh, I heard many of the same quotes from people as I am hearing now in Ukraine. Our army is the strongest, or We can't lose because we are fighting for our homeland, along with boasts about heavy enemy losses.

I wanted to believe those lines in Armenia. I still want to believe them in Ukraine.

Read the original:

Ukrainians Are Heroic Wartime Fighters but Vladimir Putin's Ready to Unleash Hell - The Daily Beast

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., seen here in December 2021, has drawn criticism from other lawmakers after making comments that Russian President Vladimir Putin should be assassinated by someone in his country. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images hide caption

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., seen here in December 2021, has drawn criticism from other lawmakers after making comments that Russian President Vladimir Putin should be assassinated by someone in his country.

Sen. Lindsey Graham's suggestion that Russians should assassinate President Vladimir Putin has drawn the ire of Republicans and Democrats concerned over the war in Ukraine.

"Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military?" the South Carolina Republican asked in a tweet.

Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated by Brutus and others in the Rome Senate on the Ides of March. Graham was also referring to German Lt. Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, who tried to kill Adolf Hitler in the summer of 1944.

"The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out. You would be doing your country - and the world - a great service," Graham said.

Asked about the remarks during the White House news briefing on Friday afternoon, press secretary Jen Psaki said, "That is not the position of the United States government and certainly not a statement you'd hear come from the mouth of anybody working in this administration."

Among lawmakers concerned over Graham's suggestion were Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

"I really wish our members of Congress would cool it and regulate their remarks as the administration works to avoid WWlll. As the world pays attention to how the US and it's leaders are responding, Lindsey's remarks and remarks made by some House members aren't helpful," Omar tweeted.

"This is an exceptionally bad idea," Cruz tweeted in response to Graham's remarks. "Use massive economic sanctions; BOYCOTT Russian oil & gas; and provide military aid so the Ukrainians can defend themselves. But we should not be calling for the assassination of heads of state."

Graham made similar remarks on television Thursday night.

Assassination during military conflict is specifically forbidden by the Lieber Code, which President Abraham Lincoln issued as a general order for U.S. forces in 1863.

Section IX of the code states that the laws of war forbid declaring a member of a hostile force or a citizen or subject of a hostile government to be an outlaw "who may be slain without trial."

"Civilized nations look with horror upon offers of rewards for the assassination of enemies as relapses into barbarism," according to the Lieber Code, which underpins international conventions on warfare.

Graham's remarks drew wide attention and criticism. In response, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office said he believes Putin should be held responsible for any war crimes committed, citing an investigation by the International Criminal Court.

The senator's communications director, Kevin Bishop, sought to clarify his comments.

Graham "also expressed he was okay with a coup to remove Putin as well," Bishop said. "Basic point, Putin has to go," he said, adding that the Russian people should find the "off ramp" to the international crisis.

A version of this story originally appeared in the Morning Edition live blog.

Go here to read the rest:

Sen. Lindsey Graham's apparent call for Putin to be assassinated draws backlash - NPR

Tactical and strategic weapons arent the only nuclear threat from Russias invasion of Ukraine. That became clear last Friday with the predawn attack on Europes largest nuclear power plantthe Zaporizhzhya plant in Enerhodar. Russian troops shelled the facility, sparking a fire in the plants administrative facility that set off alarms around the world. The blaze didnt affect the six reactors or stored spent fuel, and Russian forces occupied the plant without any radiation leak.

We survived the night that could have put an end to history, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. The attack removed any doubt that Vladimir Putin is willing to risk nuclear catastrophe. If Ukraine loses the capacity to secure and protect fuel rods, waste and other radioactive material at its civilian nuclear power plants, it will threaten the environment, safety and public health well beyond Ukraines borders. Western powers need to be mindful of that danger as they consider how to respond to Moscows aggression against Ukraine.

Continued here:

Putins Other Nuclear Threat - The Wall Street Journal

World Bank President David Malpass, in a wide-ranging interview on Cavuto: Coast-to-Coast, provides insight into the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

TikTok joined the corporate exodus from Russia on Sunday as the Chinese-owned social media platform announced it is suspending new content and livestreaming in the country after Putin signed a "fake news" law on Friday.

The new law calls for up to 15 years in prison for anyone who spreads news that is deemed "fake" by the Kremlin, such as calling Russia's war against Ukraine an "invasion" instead of the Putin-approved "special military operation."

TikTok said it is suspending new content on the app in Russia while they "review the safety implications of this law." In-app messaging is still available in the meantime.

"We will continue to evaluate the evolving circumstances in Russia to determine when we might fully resume our services with safety as our top priority," the company said in a statement Sunday.

In this photo illustration a TikTok logo is displayed on a smartphone. (Photo Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The new law adds to a growing crackdown on independent news outlets and social media platforms in Russia.

RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE: LIVE UPDATES

Russia's state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor blocked Facebook on Friday, accusing the platform of "discrimination" against Russian media after its parent company, Meta, blocked RT, Sputnik, and other state-controlled Russian media outlets.

"Soon millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information, deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends and silenced from speaking out," Nick Clegg, Metas president of global affairs, said in response.

This combination of photos shows logos for social media platforms Facebook and Twitter. (AP Photo/File)

Twitter was also blocked this week in Russia after Roskomnadzor accused the platform of failing to delete content banned by Russian authorities.

Earlier this week, Russian authorities blocked two independent news outlets, Ekho Moskvy and Dozhd TV, over the publication of "false information regarding the actions of Russian military personnel as part of a special operation."

Several foreign news outlets, including the BBC, Voice of America, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, were also blocked this week.

The Netflix logo is seen on the Netflix, Inc. building on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Streaming giant Netflix also said it would suspend service in Russia on Sunday after previously refusing to broadcast Russian propaganda channels.

"Russia is engaged in an unprovoked war on Ukraine. At home, the Kremlin is engaged in a full assault on media freedom and the truth, and Moscows efforts to mislead and suppress the truth of the brutal invasion are intensifying," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said this week.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read the original:

TikTok suspends new content and livestreaming in Russia after Putin signs 'fake news' law - Fox Business

Vladimir Putins decision to invade Ukraine has prompted demonstrations around the world, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets to condemn the war.

But anger towards the Russian leader has also ensnared an unlikely casualty: a French-Canadian delicacy of potato fries, cheese curds and gravy.

Poutine, the famous dish, shares its name in French with the maligned Russian president. And as Putin becomes the target of protest, so too has one restaurant that sells the dish.

Maison de la Poutine, with restaurants in both Paris and Toulouse, said it has received insults and threats following Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Our dish was born in Quebec in the 1950s. And the stories to tell its origin are numerous. But one thing is certain: poutine was created by passionate cooks who wanted to bring joy and comfort to their customers, the company tweeted.

The House of Poutine has worked since its first day to perpetuate these values and today brings its most sincere support to the Ukrainian people who are courageously fighting for their freedom against the tyrannical Russian regime.

The row follows a decision by a Quebec-based diner to pull the name from the menu.

Le Roy Jucep, which claims to be the birthplace of poutine in the 1950s, said it was distancing itself from the name, instead describing itself as the inventor of the fries-cheese-gravy.

Dear clients, Tonight the Jucep team decided to temporarily retire the word P**tine from its trademark in order to express, in its own way, its profound dismay over the situation in Ukraine, the diner recently wrote on Facebook, before pulling the post.

The name of the dish is widely believed to come from the a French-Canadian pronunciation of the English word pudding to describe the mushy medley.

In English, differences in pronunciation mean that there can be little overlap with the Russian leaders name. But the French transliteration of Putin already tweaked to avoid confusion with the expletive putain has left ample room for crossed wires.

People, please stop confusing Putin and poutine, tweeted one user. One is a dangerous and unwholesome mix of greasy, lumpy and congealed ingredients, the other is a delicious food.

Continue reading here:

Poutine not Putin: classic Quebec dish off the menu in France and Canada - The Guardian

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a miscalculation if he thinks the West will move on from his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,says Canadas ambassador to the sovereign democracy.

In an interview with The West Block guest host Eric Sorenson, Larisa Galadza spoke from Poland where the ambassador and Canadas diplomatic staff are operating amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Galadza and the Canadian embassy staff had been based in Kyiv before relocating to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv as the invasion began, and subsequently left the country for Poland.

Its like a sea of humanity. Its people standing in lineups, many of them on foot, but a lot of them are still in cars coming over the border, Galadza said in describing Ukrainians fleeing their country.

She said any assumptions on the part of Putin that the West will move on or get over his invasion of Ukraine is just another miscalculation.

Story continues below advertisement

Its not the first miscalculation, I think, that Russia has made, she added.

The response that were seeing from our like-minded governments, the response that were seeing from Ukrainians themselves, is unprecedented.

Some 1.2 million Ukrainians have been forced to flee as a result of the first land war on the European continent since the Second World War. Thousands of others have chosen to remain in order to fight with the Ukrainian resistance pushing back against the Russian advance.

Scores are now dead, the exact numbers still hazy amid the fog of Russian shelling and destruction.

The United Nations said as of Tuesday it had tracked 752 civilians injured or killed in Ukraine. Of that number, 227 were civilian deaths 15 of those children.

Story continues below advertisement

However, the UNs high commissioner for human rights warned that the real figures will be far higher, since numerous other casualties are pending confirmation, and information from some areas engaged in intense hostilities has been delayed.

Trending Stories

Most civilian casualties were caused by the use of heavy artillery, multi-launch rocket systems and airstrikes in populated areas, with concerning reports of use of cluster munitions striking civilian targets, said Michelle Bachelet.

Massive damage to residential buildings has been inflicted.

French President Emmanuel Macron said last week that conversations with Putin indicate he has no plans to stop until he has invaded the whole of Ukraine, raising fresh questions about what the West is willing to do if the sanctions fail to stop the continued invasion.

Story continues below advertisement

If NATO and the rest of the world is not going to intervene in a way that will turn around what Russia is doing, should Ukrainians be expected to just carry on as long as possible, dying in great numbers before this is over? Sorenson asked.

Ukrainians are doing what they need to do for the moment, knowing that all the systems in the world are working to support them, said Galadza. Everyone is doing what they need to do and for the moment, that means that Ukrainians inside Ukraine need to put up the fight of their lives.

The violence has sparked calls from the Ukrainian government to call for a NATO no-fly zone something NATO leaders, as well as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, have ruled out due to the fact enforcing one would mean shooting down Russian jets.

Experts say the overwhelming concern behind the refusal to implement a no-fly zone or send troops to aid Ukraine is about what would happen in the event a NATO soldier killed a Russian one.

Keeping that conflict short of a nuclear confrontation would be very difficult, said Dani Belo, a PhD candidate and fellow at Carleton Universitys Norman Patterson School of International Affairs.

Story continues below advertisement

Putin has repeatedly raised the threat of nuclear strikes in warnings to the West not to intervene.

Trudeau acknowledged on Monday that G7 and NATO leaders have discussed concerns about the potential of Putin acting on that threat. Those comments, though, came just days before Russian troops attacked and seized control of Europes largest nuclear power plant.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said on Friday that it was only by the grace of God that the world narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe from the attack.

2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Read more here:

Putin miscalculated if he thinks West will move on after Ukraine invasion: ambassador - Global News

Today, the world sees Vladimir Putin from a distance, isolated at the end of a very long table. When I first met him, in September 2000, he was at a very different table, in a private room at New Yorks 21 Club, at a dinner hosted by Tom Brokaw for 20 or so media luminaries. Brokaw had interviewed the recently elected Russian president for NBC a few months earlier. I was invited because I had just closed a lengthy profile of Putin for Vanity Fair, and also because my late husband, Tim Russert, was the anchor of NBCs Meet the Press.

The number one topic was why Putin had not interrupted his vacation when the Russian Kursk submarine sank, killing all 118 crew members. By then, Russians were fed up with years of his predecessor Boris Yeltsins often drunken antics, and Putin had quickly sought to impose order and restore government control over two media empires that were ruled by oligarchs he considered too independent. He was already making moves to eventually crush them. Hed also installed ruthless former KGB officials in key geographic super zones to supervise the unruly Russian parliament. Putin himself had won the presidency in no small part by promising to brutally eliminate separatists who had fought back in Chechnya, not entirely dissimilar to how the Ukrainians are fighting back today.

My head stuffed with facts about Russia after months of reporting out my Vanity Fair story, I immediately raised my hand when Brokaw said Putin would answer some questions. We had a back and forth about press freedoms that ended with Putin finally saying, Who are you? Where are you from? Why did you not come to me personally to ask me these questions? I pointed to his spokesman at the time, Alexey Gromov, sitting nearby. I have been trying for four months to interview you and he always said no.

A few months earlier, in June 2000, I had been present when President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and Clintons chief of staff, John Podesta, met Putin for the first time for bilateral talks on U.S.-Russian relations. The confab took place in the grand St. George Hall of the Kremlin, which had been freshly refurbished in Tsarist splendor. Clinton, who was buddies with Yeltsin, began a smiley, rambling talk that appeared mostly content-free. Meanwhile, the unsmiling Putin, who was very much prepared, sat by himself at his own table, dressed in a yellow-beige suit that matched both his complexion and demeanor. As Clinton went on, Putin, who slumped inattentively in his chair, began to drum his fingertips on the tabletop. Then they all retired to a smaller room with a conventional conference table, where some of us in the press were allowed to glimpse Putin presenting a bouquet of flowers to the American ambassador on his birthday. Later, at a carefully vetted press conference, Western journalists and Russian journalists sat apart and each group was allowed exactly four questions that had been submitted and chosen beforehand.

Going to St. Petersburg a few days later to research Putins origins, I learned about two qualities that defined him: the price he put on loyalty, and his reverence for the motherland, which was fueled by a deep resentment for the humiliation that he and his close circle of former KGB agents believed had been visited upon them by the U.S. and the West after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Shock therapy was the informal name of U.S. policy toward Russia in the 1990s. It was perpetrated by a group of Harvard professors led by Jeffrey Sachs and Andrei Shleifer, who were mentored by Larry Summers. Vice President Al Gore oversaw its implementation. The idea was to quickly replace the state-run economy with a free market one, but in practice the sudden removal of price controls and subsidies sparked hyperinflation, wiping out the savings of millions of ordinary Russians, and even causing starvation in some places.

I witnessed the hardship myself when I made my first reporting trip to Russia for Vanity Fair, in 1994, to chronicle the rise of the bernationalist politician and white supremacist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who I discovered had been secretly sponsored by the ever-powerful intelligence services to siphon votes off from Yeltsin. Zhirinovsky sat down with me in front of a map of the world and circled the old Soviet empire, then blithely drew an arrow straight down through Iran and wrote across 11 time zones, Russia. This belongs to us, he said. The U.S. can have North and South America, Europe can have Africa.

When the Soviet Union fell, the KGB was never dissolved, just halved into domestic and foreign branches. The domestic branch was rechristened the FSB. Putin is not a democrat, I was told in St Petersburg. Do you know what dermocracy is in Russia? In Russian, dermo means crap. I also learned that Putin, the only surviving child of working-class parents, came from a family that hates democracy. Indeed, Putins grandfather worked as a cook for Stalin. In his youth, the slight, 135-pound Volodya first gained recognition as a judo champion, renowned among his teammates for his ability to throw men twice his weight through cunning and surprise.

See the rest here:

Putins Character Was Clear Long Before He Retreated to the Far End of the Table - Vanity Fair

More than 4,300 people have been arrested after demonstrators took to the streets in 21 Russian cities to condemn Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine, while protesters in Kazakhstan have followed suit, turning out in large numbers to chant No to war and Putin is a dickhead.

The independent monitoring group OVD-Info which has already logged more than 7,500 anti-war protest arrests said it had documented the detentions of at least 4,366 people in 53 cities including Vladivostok and Irkutsk. Opposition activists also posted videos showing protests in other cities.

The screws are being fully tightened essentially we are witnessing military censorship, Maria Kuznetsova, OVD-Infos spokesperson, told Reuters. We are seeing rather big protests today, even in Siberian cities where we only rarely saw such numbers of arrests.

Russias interior ministry said earlier that police had detained about 3,500 people, including 1,700 in Moscow, 750 in St Petersburg and 1,061 in other cities.

The jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had called for protest across Russia and the rest of the world after the Russian invasion, which began on 24 February. But Russias interior ministry warned on Saturday that any attempt to hold unauthorised protests would be prevented and the organisers held to account.

Independent reporting from Russia has become increasingly difficult since Friday, when the government cracked down on news outlets by passing a law that made the intentional spreading of fake or false news about the war in Ukraine a criminal offence punishable by jail terms of up to 15 years.

A video posted on social media showed a protester on a square in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk shouting No to war how are you not ashamed? before being arrested by two police officers. Police also used loudspeakers to tell a small group of protesters in the city: Respected citizens, you are taking part in an unsanctioned public event. We demand you disperse. Reuters was not able to independently verify the post.

Videos posted on social media showed about 2,000 people had attended an anti-war protest in Kazakhstans biggest city, Almaty.

Activists put blue and yellow balloons in the hand of a Lenin statue towering over the small square where the rally took place, and the crowd shouted slogans such as No to war and Putin is a dickhead while waving Ukrainian flags.

Although Putin has sought to depict the invasion as a special military operation to defend Russian-speaking communities against persecution in Ukraine, his claims have been overwhelmingly rejected both abroad and by some in Russia.

Because of Putin, Russia now means war for many people, Navalny said on Friday. That is not right: it was Putin and not Russia that attacked Ukraine.

On Sunday the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoan, urged Putin to declare a ceasefire in Ukraine, open humanitarian corridors and sign a peace agreement.

In a statement released after a hourlong phone call between the two leaders, the Turkish presidency said Erdoan had told Putin that Turkey was ready to contribute to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

President Erdoan renewed his call of: Lets pave the way for peace together, his office said. Erdoan emphasised the importance of taking urgent steps to achieve a ceasefire, open humanitarian corridors and sign a peace agreement.

Despite the international condemnation and sanctions that have met the military attack, Putins approval ratings have jumped in Russia since the invasion, according to Moscow-based pollsters.

Putins rating rose six percentage points to 70% in the week to 27 February, according to the state pollster VTsIOM. The pollster FOM, which conducts research for the Kremlin, said Putins rating had risen seven percentage points to 71% in the same week.

Reuters contributed to this report.

See the rest here:

More than 4,300 people arrested at anti-war protests across Russia - The Guardian