a copy of war and peace
a pack of ham with the word peace
written on it and a sheet of paper with
asterisks i was arrested just for 30
seconds holding items like these in
public could get you in trouble with
authorities in russia under new
legislation introduced in recent weeks
what we're seeing now is a near wipeout
of any ability to speak out
moscow puts much effort into presenting
a well-curated image of the war to the
population
the message inside russia is that its
soldiers are defending the ukrainian
population from their own army and
government
attempts to question it have been
stifled
the wall street journal reviewed police
documents and spoke with people inside
russia to understand how far the kremlin
is going to control the public's
perception of the war in ukraine
in the early days of the invasion people
took to the streets across russia to
protest
but within weeks most of the visible
signs of dissent had disappeared to
understand why first we have to look at
the language the kremlin is using to
shape public opinion
when officials in the media talk about
russia's actions in ukraine they don't
use words such as war and invasion
the flip side is people can be legally
liable for talking about peace in public
or promoting anti-war slogans
like this detention in the center of
moscow in mid-march
a young man stood with a sheet of paper
which at first glance didn't even look
like an anti-war poster it just showed
eight asterisks these eight stars mean
netfinea or in english no to the war
dimitri reznikov a sociology student at
a moscow university is the man seen in
this video a copy of the police report
reviewed by wsj said that dmitry
discredited russian forces with his
poster
this is a violation under an amendment
to existing law that was swiftly passed
in march weeks after russia's invasion
of ukraine punishments now include fines
of up to the equivalent of twelve
thousand dollars for discrediting the
army and up to fifteen years in prison
for publishing anything deemed to be
false information about the war
dimitri was fined equivalent to some six
hundred dollars but he says his poster
has nothing to do with discrediting the
army
my poster expresses the main ideas the
first one is
pacifist position the second idea
concerns censorship in our country today
in russia any publicly expressed opinion
that contradicts the position of the
government is a big risk
the word peace itself is among those
that can discredit russian forces
according to prosecutors in the country
maxime salek was fined the equivalent of
six hundred dollars for holding a pack
of ham
he changed the logo to read peace in
russian
and constantin goldman stood silently
with a book of war and peace next to a
monument to the city of kiev near the
kremlin wall
he was detained minutes later after a
woman reported him to a police officer
found guilty of protesting near the
presidential residence and fined
according to his lawyer
all three men pleaded not guilty what
this indicates is essentially that
nothing uh that might even be taken as a
sign of dissent is allowed in russia
right now and so if you're even standing
in a public square holding a piece of
paper whatever that piece of paper says
you're signaling to the public that
you're out there protesting
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more than 15 000 anti-war protesters
have been detained since the start of
the invasion according to ovid de info
and independence rights group
it shows the great lengths that the
kremlin is going to sniff out dissent to
make sure that its message of unity
behind the war is coming across
the kremlin didn't respond to the
journal's request for comment on arrests
of anti-war protesters and restrictions
on freedom of speech in the country
russian authorities have said they hear
those who don't support their actions
and are working to explain their goals
in ukraine
in april 74 of respondents backed
russia's campaign in ukraine according
to the independent pollster levada
center
some sociologists say opinion polls
aren't necessarily accurate in contexts
where people are often afraid to
criticize the government
still in parts of the country there
continue to be small protests and signs
of dissent like this no to war sign that
briefly appeared on the ice of saint
petersburg and protesters say many
others like them disagree with the
government
the world should know that there are a
lot of people in russia who are against
this wire