Watchdog

Three correspondents from RFE/RL's Russian Service have been detained in Moscow while covering a rally against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The journalists were arrested despite one of them telling police repeatedly that he was a representative of the press. According to a video of the arrest that one of the journalists filmed and managed to transmit, he also tells the officer to stop using physical force against him.

The nearly two-minute shaky video shows the journalist being escorted away after nightfall on Pushkinskaya Square and being placed into a police bus with more than 20 other people inside.

According to the correspondents, they were to be taken to the Kuntsevo police station.

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said Russia, having launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine, "now seeks to deny its citizens access to any and all information that would expose the falsehoods it has used to justify the invasion."

Fly noted that the RFE/RL journalists were arrested in Moscow while covering an anti-war rally, calling it "an inconvenient challenge to the Kremlin’s narrative."

He strongly condemned the detention of the RFE/RL journalists and called for their immediate release.

There have also been reports of detentions of employees of other media outlets. The security force presence in the center of Moscow included a noticeable accumulation of special equipment and fighters of the National Guard.

The arrests occurred after about 300-700 people gathered near the monument to the writer Alexander Pushkin chanting "No to war!"

OVD-Info, a nonprofit that monitors police arrests nationwide, said more than 1,700 people were detained at anti-war protests in 53 Russian cities. More than 900 were arrested in Moscow and more than 400 in St. Petersburg, the monitor said.

The Telegram channel Baza reported that the Moscow Police received an order to suppress everything that can be considered a provocation, including the flags of Ukraine and posters with inflammatory statements.

MOSCOW -- Prominent Russian human rights activist Marina Litvinovich was detained by police on February 24 shortly after she publicly called on Russians to rally in their cities against Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Litvinovich wrote on Telegram she was detained as she was leaving her apartment in Moscow.

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In a video statement on Facebook, Litvinovich called on Russians across the country not to be afraid and to protest Russia's attack on Ukraine.

"I know that many of you right now feel desperate, powerless, and ashamed over the attack by [President] Vladimir Putin on the friendly people of Ukraine. But I call on you not to be desperate and come out to the central squares of your cities at 7 p.m. today and clearly and explicitly say that we, the people of Russia, are against the war unleashed by Putin," Litvinovich said.

the Investigative Committee, meanwhile, warned citizens against taking part in anti-invasion protests.

"The Investigative Committee of Russia warns of responsibility for holding unauthorized actions and participating in uncoordinated events," the committee said in a message on its official web page.

However, in many cities across Russia, Omsk, Khabarovsk, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Astrakhan, and Saratov, people held single-person pickets -- which do not require preliminary permission from the authorities -- to demand that Russian authorities immediately stop the military attack on Ukraine.

Many of the picketers were detained by police.

In neighboring Kazakhstan, police in the Central Asian state's largest city, Almaty, arrested several activists who rallied in front of the Russian Consulate condemning the war in Ukraine.

In another Central Asian country, Kyrgyzstan, dozens of activists picketed the Russian Embassy on February 24, protesting Russia's attack on Ukraine.

With reporting by Siberia.Realities, Idel.Realities, and RFE/RL's Kazakh Service