The police took the passport and took away at least one girl in an unknown direction, who came to the building of the Russian Ministry of Defense, where the action of relatives of the mobilized is taking place. A video of the arrest was published by one of the protest participants, Paulina Safronova, but it has now been deleted.
Safronova did not specify the number of detainees. SotaVision reported the detention of two journalists, one of whom was released. According to the publication, after this the police asked the remaining journalists to leave the area where the protest was taking place.
The protesters said that they would stand at the Ministry of Defense until the head of the department, Andrei Belousov, came to them. According to Safronova, pro-government activists from “Putin’s squad” were already approaching them, offering the wives of the conscripts ice cream.
Some participants in the action were able to get into the reception room of the Ministry of Defense, where they were offered “some benefits” and were no longer told “nothing interesting.”
This is not the first time that relatives of those mobilized have held protests near the Ministry of Defense building. The last one took place on June 3. Then they also demanded a meeting with Belousov, holding posters “It’s time for the mobilized to go home” and “Set the terms of service for soldiers in the Northern Military District.”
At the end of May, the Ministry of Justice recognized the “Way Home” movement as a “foreign agent”, in which included relatives of the mobilized. The department explained its inclusion in the register by actions demanding military rotation and comments by movement participants to publications—“foreign agents.”