The Independent reports that an armed forces minister has paid tribute to protesters in Russian cities demonstrating in open defiance of Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin’s bloody invasion of Ukraine.
The paper says that the comment comes after images and videos emerged of protests erupting in cities including the capital of Moscow, St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg — chanting slogans such as “No to war!”:
Police were swift to clamp down on the protest and have so far arrested 1,667 people at protests in 53 cities, the OVD-Info rights monitor, which tracks arrests at opposition rallies said.
Addressing the protests, after footages showed authorities grabbing and pulling activists away, the armed forces minister James Heappey the Kremlin had “miscalculated badly”.
“I’ll also pay tribute to protesters in Moscow, St Petersburg, and other Russian cities, who protested against last night against this pointless loss of Russian life,” he said.
Heappey is absolutely right of course, and yet he is a member of a government intent on restricting UK citizens right to protest in the same way. Perhaps somebodyshould explain the meaning of the word 'irony' to him.
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