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The Telegraph
The Telegraph
3 Feb 2024
Jörg Luyken


Police arrest dozens of journalists at protest by relatives of Russian troops mobilised in Ukraine

Russian police on Saturday detained a group of at least twenty journalists covering a demonstration by the wives of mobilised soldiers near Moscow’s Red Square.

The officers appeared to target male reporters at the protest, a journalist at the march said.

Video footage shows at least a dozen officers walking into the protests before leading away journalists dressed in yellow vests.

Video journalist for AFP among arrested

A video journalist for the news agency AFP was among those arrested.

He was able to report from inside the vehicle that took the men away from the scene of the demonstration.

The journalists were taken to a nearby police station, the news agency reported.

German magazine Der Spiegel, one of whose journalists was also arrested, reported later on Saturday that some of the reporters had since been released.

Wives and partners protest for several weeks

For several weeks, the wives and partners of mobilised men have been staging protests outside the Kremlin walls, demanding that their partners be brought home.

The Kremlin has so far allowed the protests to take place despite tight restrictions it had placed on protest since its full scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago.

Several dozen women turned up at Saturday’s march, which marked 500 days since a partial mobilisation of young men into the Russian army.

Wearing white scarves and carrying flowers which they place at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the women say they want the Kremlin to tell them when their husbands will return from the front in eastern Ukraine.

Movement so far gone unpunished

The movement has so far gone unpunished by Russian authorities.

Reports of detentions of journalists at the march will heighten fears about intimidation of the international media at a time when a US journalist is still being held in Russia on espionage charges.

In January, a Russian court extended the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich by two months.

Mr Gershkovich was detained in March of 2023 and has been charged with espionage.

He has denied the charges against him. Russian prosecutors are yet to provide any evidence against him.

The 32-year-old was arrested while on a reporting trip in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. He is being held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison.