More than 20,000 activists subject to heavy reprisals as Russia continues to crack down on anti-war movement at home. There is now an endless series of criminal trials against activists and independent politicians in Russia. They are given huge prison sentences under blatantly falsified articles. Both the leader of the opposition and an activist with an anti-war poster can be sent to prison.
These people are real heroes. They take the opportunity to show people in other countries, especially in Ukraine, that there are people in Russia who do not accept this war. “It’s scary to go to protests, but it’s unbearable to do nothing,” – this is what they say.
“Repression in Russia runs deep where a complex and extensive range of tactics are increasingly being weaponized to silence anti-war dissent. Peaceful protesters against the war in Ukraine and those who share critical information about the Russian armed forces face severe criminal, administrative and other sanctions. New, absurd laws that criminalize those who freely express their views have been adopted and immediately put to use. The flawed criminal justice system, characterized by deeply unfair trials, has been deployed to dish out prison sentences and hefty fines to silence critics in response to slightest dissent,” stated Oleg Kozlovsky, Amnesty International’s Russia Researcher.
“Faces of Russian Resistance – Russians against war” is a series of exhibitions in different cities around the world about Russians, who oppose the criminal Putin regime and paid for it with their freedom.
Our heroes are not only politicians, who led an open struggle for the freedom of Russia. These are ordinary citizens, who did not believe the false propaganda and did not accept the invasion to a neighboring country. There are men and women, young and old, political activists, artists, scientists, students, fathers and mothers. They were all jailed for years, some of them — for decades.
We don’t want to leave them alone in their desperate protests. We want to spread the voice of all these very brave people, who often suffer life-changing consequences for their imprisonment. We want to tell Europeans about the fate of Russian political prisoners, to attract the attention of Western society to severe violations of human rights in Russia, to ensure that the issue of the release of Russian political prisoners is included in any communications with the Russian authorities that are carried out or will be held in the future.
We invite you to the exhibition “Faces of Russian Resistance – Russians against war”.
WHEN: Sunday, 29 October – Sunday, 12 November 2023
WHERE: Israels Plads in central Copenhagen
NB: The exhibition has been legally registered and secured against vandalism. Any acts of vandalism will be reported to the police.