In three years of war, law enforcement detained 20,081 Russians due to their anti-war stance, with 18.9 thousand detained in 2022 alone. In 2023, there were 274 cases of detentions due to public actions, and in 2024–2025, a total of 82 detentions were recorded, most of which occurred in Moscow (27 cases) and St. Petersburg (13 cases), according to a report by the human rights project "OVD-Info"*. This statistic does not include those detained under criminal cases, with an additional 1,185 people being prosecuted separately.
At least 325 individuals involved in criminal cases began being prosecuted from February 2024. Currently, 913 people are under "anti-war" criminal prosecution.
The share of those who began being prosecuted under "anti-war" criminal cases in 2022 or 2023 accounted for more than half of the total number of politically motivated criminal cases. Last year, the share of "anti-war" individuals significantly decreased, making up 32% of all prosecuted under politically motivated criminal cases. However, authorities have toughened penalties for those opposing the war in Ukraine.
The most "anti-war" prosecutions are in Moscow (185 people). St. Petersburg ranks second with 87 individuals involved in criminal cases, followed by Sverdlovsk Oblast (35 people), Tatarstan (34), Moscow Oblast (32), annexed Crimea, and Krasnodar Krai (31 people each).
Among the articles under which "anti-war" criminal cases are initiated, the article on military "fakes" stands out, which was included in the Criminal Code in March 2022. In the same year, 158 people were charged under it. In 2023, cases on "fakes" were initiated against at least 112 people, with a close second (101 people) being another article specifically created to combat anti-war statements — on "discrediting" the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
In 2024, the number of new individuals involved in criminal cases for "discrediting" halved — 50 people, and there were also fewer cases on military "fakes" — 61 people. Now, the leading article is on "calls for terrorist activities" or its "public justification": last year, 87 people became involved in criminal cases under this article.
Despite the decrease in the number of cases, penalties are becoming harsher. For example, most sentences in cases of "calls for terrorism" or "public justification of terrorism" issued in 2023 were fines. In 2024, imprisonment predominates.
Most often, those prosecuted under "anti-war cases" are sentenced to relatively long terms from four to almost seven years and from seven to almost ten years (the number of such sentences in 2024 increased by more than a third compared to 2023), with the third place being sentences from two to almost three years.
In three years of war, law enforcement initiated the most "anti-war" criminal cases due to statements on the internet. In 2022, 220 people faced prosecution due to publications against the war on social networks. Most cases due to statements on the internet are initiated because of publications on "VKontakte", this social network remains the most unsafe in 2024. The second place is taken by Telegram, and the third — YouTube.
Throughout the three years of war, journalists remain the largest group (71 people) involved in "anti-war" criminal cases. In 2022, the second-largest similar group was politicians who also actively spoke out against the war, but later they were replaced by entrepreneurs, against whom criminal cases began to be initiated more frequently in 2023 and 2024.
"OVD-Info" also reports on 290 other politically motivated prosecutions related to the war. This category includes, in particular, people who faced repressions due to accusations of ties with the Armed Forces of Ukraine or coverage of hostilities in the media.
* Recognized in Russia as a "foreign agent".
Photo: OVD-Info