Flower protests
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Opposition to the Russo-Ukrainian War
- Opposition to the authority of Vladimir Putin
- Military withdrawal of Russia from Ukraine
- Resignation of Vladimir Putin
| Flower protests in Russia (2023) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Protests against the Russian invasion of Ukraine | |||
 | |||
| Date | January 14, 2023 – ongoing | ||
| Location | |||
| Caused by |
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| Goals |
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| Parties | |||
| Casualties | |||
| Detained | at least 57 | ||
| Fined | 43 | ||
Flower protests in Russia are a wave of peaceful, silent protests in Russia, started in January 2023, against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. People in various cities of Russia create spontaneous memorials by laying flowers at places that are connected to Ukraine or to state violence. By May 2023, the memorials were created in at least 75 cities.[1]
On February 27, 2015, Russian liberal politician and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, Boris Nemtsov, was shot dead on the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge. People immediately created a spontaneous memorial at the place of his death. The memorial had been maintained by volunteers for five years: people kept carrying flowers and notes. Doing so, they announced the problem right under the walls of the Kremlin: the real customers of the murder were still not convicted.[2]
It became a Moscow tradition that has spread across all of Russia in 2018, after the Kemerovo fire, where 60 people died. Basic safety requirements were violated during the construction and operation of the building, and the Russian government delayed declaring national mourning. The horror of this story and dissatisfaction with the actions of the authorities led to the emergence of a large number of spontaneous memorials.[3] People created spontaneous memorials in 246 Russian cities.[4]
On February 24 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, protests against the war took place in various cities of Russia. The Russian authorities imprisoned thousands of demonstrators, and the demonstrations could not be continued on a large scale. In September 2022, there was another wave of protests in Russia caused by the military mobilization declared by Vladimir Putin. The rallies were marked by mass detentions not only of protesters, but also of ordinary passersby. Russian authorities suppressed the protests.[5]
As Russian military progress in Ukraine slowed down around the summer of 2022, the Russian military increased its focus on using cruise missiles and drones against civilian targets in Ukraine.
Russians risk up to 10 years in prison, and in some cases, up to 15 years, for disclosing what Russia is doing in Ukraine.[6]
