Russia has arrested nearly 20,000 people for protesting Ukraine war

Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Russia has arrested nearly 20,000 people for protesting the Ukraine war, according to a recent report from the Russia-based human rights project OVD-Info.

The organization published a report in July which found that at least 19,735 people had been arrested since Feb. 24, 2022, as of June 22.

The report found that 19,062 people were arrested during protest rallies while 325 were arrested after the fact. Another 360 people have been arrested for posts made to social media or remarks made in private discussions.

The majority of the arrests, about 15,354 of them, were made in the first month of the invasion as Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime cracked down on dissent.

OVD-Info has also tracked dozens of new laws passed by the Russian Duma, the country's legislative body, which the organization described as "repressions at the legislative level."

Those who have been detained in "anti-war" cases have alleged that they are not receiving enough drinking water while in pre-trial detention and other mistreatment.

The United Nations' Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said last fall that officials were "deeply disturbed" by the number of people arrested in Russia for protesting the war in Ukraine.

"We stress that arresting people solely for exercising their rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of liberty," the OHCHR said in its statement at the time.

"We call for the immediate release of all those arbitrarily detained and for the authorities to abide by their international obligations to respect and ensure the rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly."

The news comes with the sentencing of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who survived being poisoned with Novichok by agents with the Federal Security Service - the main successor agency of the former KGB.

A Russian court Friday added 19 years to Navalny's existing 9-year prison sentence after convicting him of charges including rehabilitation of Nazism and inciting children to dangerous acts.

Navalny has urged Russians to oppose the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which since its invasion of Ukraine has used the country's legal system to harshly punish dissent.