In Moscow silent protest against the war with flowers and teddy bears

Police buses have seemed ubiquitous in Moscow since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, guarding much of the city centre, including a statue of one of Ukraine’s most famous poets that has become a landmark. popular for a silent but moving outburst of anti-war sentiment.

Ever since a Russian missile struck a residential building in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro nine days ago, killing 46 people and injuring 80 others, Muscovites have come to lay flowers – along with stuffed animals and photos of the destroyed building – at the statue’s feet Of Lesia Ukraine, Ukrainian poet and playwright who lived in the last decades of the Russian Empire.

The ritual, following one of the highest death tolls from a single attack since the start of the war, has become an expression of pain, shame and opposition to war.

But at regular intervals the authorities have left removing the flowers.

“In contemporary Russia, under these conditions, it’s a battle, a silent battle,” said Tatyana Krupina, a 28-year-old pharmacist who went last week with a small group of friends to lay flowers.

This is what is meant by protest in Russia in January 2023, 11 months after the invasion.

The Russians have begun to deposit flowers in other cities as well, stimulated by social networks.

The flower dispute is one of the first large-scale public protests since the days following the president’s announcement Vladimir Putin in September that hundreds of thousands of men would be recalled.

Russia has imposed stiff sanctions for criticizing the war, or even calling it that, so for many Russians, laying flowers seems like a rare opportunity to show your dissent without being arrested.

For anti-government Russians who remain in Russia, the flowers are a reminder that they are not alone in their opposition to the war, even as propaganda becomes ever more virulent and the letters Z and V, which have become pro-war symbols, are registered in the public buildings.

And for Russians who fled persecution, possible conscription or refusal to pay the taxes that will fuel the war machine, the flower monument is a sign that there are still enough people in the country. brave enough to protest.

“It’s not just a way to show Ukrainians that there are people in Russia who don’t approve of what’s happening, it shows them that they are not alone,” said Alexander Plyushchev, a popular Russian journalist with a huge YouTube following.

But even depositing flowers can have consequences.

At least seven people have been arrested, according to a reporter from The New York Times who watched the episodes last week.

Four were arrested after placing flowers at the scene.

Police have tried to stop people from taking pictures of the monument and told others to delete the pictures from their phones.

But folks keep cominglooking for a space when there aren’t many people gathered around the monument so it doesn’t look like an illegal public gathering, and they quietly lay down their flowers.

“My resistance is over; I want to show my opinion,” a lawyer named Ekaterina Varenik said on Saturday afternoon after placing flowers on the statue.

He was referring to the fact that he could not publicly express his opinion.

Varenik, 26, said the last time he protested was when the opposition politician was arrested Alexei Navalnytwo years ago.

He stayed at home when thousands of people protested the anti-war mobilization. But, he said of the crackdown:

“Every day is worse and more severe.”

For more than half an hour, Varenik stood in front of the statue with a homemade sign that read:

“Ukraine: they are not our enemies, but our brothers”.

Soon after, she was arrested by the police and faces a sentence of up to 15 days in prison.

For many, being in front of the statue is an intense emotion.

“How could this have happened?” sobbed a pensioner named Rita, who refused to give her last name for fear of retaliation, saying only that she was over 50.

“People are dying: children, the elderly,” he said.

“It’s awful. Maybe this will remind people that we live in a scary world.”

Some prominent Russians have downplayed the protests.

“Bringing flowers to a monument doesn’t take courage or even money,” he said Wednesday. Dmitry L. Bykovpoet and writer critical of the government living in exile, during a debate broadcast by Youtube.

“This is aesthetically beautiful, but completely useless,” said Bykov, from which investigative journalists bellcat they concluded he was the victim of an attempted poisoning in 2019 with a nerve agent similar to the one used on Navalny.

And he added: “There is only one positive effect: maybe someone will find out who Lesya Ukrainka is – a great poet – and read her work.”

The statue has been the scene of altercations with nationalist supporters of the war, who denounced the mourners and accused the authorities of bringing the Russian military into disrepute, which is now a crime in Russia.

The Kremlin’s crackdown on political opposition and protests has accelerated since the invasion of Ukraine.

Of 20,000 protesters they have been detained since the beginning of the war, according to OVD Info, a human rights watchdog.

Many lost their jobs after protesting, signing petitions or writing on social media critical of the war.

Ilya Yashin, a Moscow city councilor, was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for exposing the atrocities committed by Russia in Bucha, Ukraine.

A 19-year-old university student from the city of Arkhangelsk faces up to 10 years in prison for posting criticism of the war on social media.

In that context, challenging the police to lay flowers may take some courage, but it also involves a brain drain which became more difficult to bear as the war escalated.

“I know that at any moment the police can come to my house and arrest me,” said Maksim Shatalov, 36, a former flight attendant who said he was fired from his job because of his anti-war stance.

Shatalov befriended a small circle of activists after he was packed into an avtozak, or police van, following a protest in April.

Throughout the summer and fall, they protested the mobilization, writing anti-war messages throughout the city and placing flowers on other monuments.

Shatalov and her friend Anna Saifytdinova, 34, together brought flowers to the statue one recent afternoon.

She wore four white roses; Russians give an even number of flowers as a tribute to the deceased.

As one of her underage friends was arrested after placing a photo of the devastated Dnipro building at the base of the statue, Saifytdinova waited until there were no people around lest she be accused of staging an unauthorized protest.

“I’ve already spent eight days in jail for protesting the mobilization,” he said.

“If I’m arrested again, I face a criminal charge.”

This could mean a sentence up to 10 years.

“It’s like Russian roulette,” he said. You never know when something bad might happen or when it won’t.”

Some people have been arrested for detention a white sheet in public”.

Shatalov said he planned to leave Russia soon because he feared arrest.

“I think I would do more good in another country than being here with no job and no livelihood,” he said.

“What will I achieve by being in a prison camp?

Will I be constantly beaten or locked in a cage all the time like Navalny?

Or will someone from the Wagner private military company come and try to recruit me to fight in Ukraine with the threat that if I don’t enlist? They will bring me to the point of committing suicide.”

Even so, some of those facing arrest persist in showing their resistance.

“Moscow is a huge city, and everyone is calm,” said Varenik, the lawyer, before being arrested for her anti-war manifesto.

“I want to show the world that we shouldn’t be silent. We allow all of this with our silence.”

c.2023 The New York Times Society