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Watch: Anti-war demonstrators detained; 'Putin is not Russia,' says Navalny
Russia-Ukraine crisis: According to the estimate of an independent tracker, over 7,000 people all across Russia have been detained at protests over the invasion of Ukraine
Dozens of anti-war demonstrators were detained in Moscow and St Petersburg on Wednesday as voices against President Vladimir Putin's special military operation in Ukraine are growing louder and stronger. Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has called for daily anti-war protests in Russia. Calling Putin an "obviously insane tsar", Navalny said Russians must tell the world that nor all Russians support the war.
"We cannot wait even a day longer. Wherever you are. In Russia, Belarus or on the other side of the planet. Go out onto the main square of your city every weekday at 19.00 and at 14.00 at weekends and on holidays," he said in a statement published on Twitter by his spokesperson.
As Russian forces are expanding their attack on Ukraine, back home demonstrators marched in cities chanting 'No to war', holding posters denouncing the war. Independent monitoring group OVD-Info says over 7,000 people in total in Russia have been detained at protests over the invasion of Ukraine.
Navalny, the most prominent of Putin's opponents, was jailed last year after his return from Germany following treatment for what Western laboratory tests showed was an attempt to poison him with a nerve agent in Siberia. He said he was sentenced on trumped-up charges.
"I am from the USSR. I was born there. And the main phrase from there - from my childhood - was 'fight for peace'. I call on everyone to come out on to the streets and fight for peace... Putin is not Russia," Navalny said.
