Five people arrested in Yekaterinburg, Russia at flower-laying demonstration against mobilization

In Yekaterinburg, Russia on Saturday, five people who came to lay flowers at a military memorial as part of a demonstration against mobilization were arrested, report OVD-Info and local media outlet Vechernie Vedomosti.

The Way Home (“Put Domoi”), a Telegram channel run by Russian women advocating for their mobilized husbands to be sent home from the war in Ukraine, holds regular flower-laying demonstrations on Saturdays.

According to the detainees, the police were in plain clothes and led by Vitaly Sorokin, an official from the regional Public Security Ministry. The five were taken to a police station and charged with misdemeanors for purportedly violating the rules on public gatherings.

Two of those arrested are former Yabloko party candidates for the Yekaterinburg City Duma, noted OVD-Info.