At least two of around 20 wives and mothers of mobilized Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine have been charged with holding an unsanctioned public event after their weekend rally in front of the Defense Ministry in Moscow to demand their men be returned home.
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The women were summoned to a police station and questioned after unfurling banners with their demands.
Two of them, Anna Bogatchenko and Anastasia Slavik, were charged, reported OVD-Info, which monitors rights abuses in Russia.
The protest in the Russian capital on September 21 coincided with the date two years ago when President Vladimir Putin signed a decree calling up men to what Russian officials call the "special military operation" in Ukraine.
The women demanded a meeting with Defense Minister Andrei Belousov and the demobilization of their loved ones.
After the women said they would camp out in front of the ministry building overnight, police forcibly dispersed them, briefly detaining some of them.
In October 2022, Putin announced the partial mobilization was over, but never signed a corresponding decree, publicly saying that there was no need for that.
He later announced that the mobilized men would remain in the armed forces until the end of the conflict.
The absence of a decree ending the partial mobilization allows the authorities to keep the men deployed in Ukraine as the legal regime continues to be in force.
After Putin announced the mobilization two years ago, hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens left the country, mostly for Kazakhstan, Georgia, Mongolia, and Turkey, to evade being called up.
The invasion of Ukraine has been a disaster for Russia, taking the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers, dragging down the county's economy, and ruining relations with the West.
Putin has outlawed criticism of the war and the armed forces to crush any opposition.