Threats, torture, beatings The anti-war activists labelled traitors by Putin

Even before Vladimir Putin declared a hunt for “national traitors” and a “fifth column” over his invasion of Ukraine this week, anti-war activists had faced increasing pressure, including police torture, intimidation tactics, work dismissals and other threats.

- Andrew Roth

In a police station in Moscow earlier this month, an anti-war protester managed to record her own beating as officers threatened her for taking part in peaceful demonstrations that have already seen nearly 15,000 people detained.

“Place of study?” a policeman asks the student in the recording, which she published online. When she didn’t answer, they hit her. “You’ll have a bit of a bruise. Get up, try to remember.” Then they hit her again.

In an interview with the Guardian, another student, Anastasia, 18, described being threatened for hours after being arrested for taking to the streets and chanting “No to war”.

“They told me they would beat me and that they were going to throw us to the homeless, rape us,” she said. She added she had not been beaten but that officers grew violent with other activists as they refused to cooperate.

Russia’s war has above all affected the lives of millions of Ukrainians, turning busy cities like Mariupol and Kharkiv into war-scarred battlegrounds and leaving thousands dead.

But Russians have also woken up in a different land, one seeking internal enemies to blame for the descent into economic isolation and hardship.