INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Day, an independent watchdog reported.The detentions come at a time when anti-war activism has been effectively outlawed under laws passed
shortly after Moscow sent troops into neighboring Ukraine.OVD-Info, a police-monitoring website that runs a legal hotline for those
least one activist was detained twice in the morning and evening.Most of the activists and journalists have been released later without
being charged, OVD-Info reported later Monday evening
sharing non-Kremlin-approved information about it are both punishable under new laws passed shortly after the invasion.More than 15,000
anti-war protesters have been detained across Russia since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on Feb
24.Prominent Putin critics Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza were placed in pre-trial detention for denouncing Moscow's Ukraine offensive
independent media has either been blocked or shut down since February, with many journalists fleeing the country to escape
as well as restricted access to Twitter, since the war began.The National Flag Day detentions follow similar police actions on Victory Day
and Russia Day in Moscow and around the country in May and June.National Flag Day has been celebrated every year on Aug
22 since then-President Boris Yeltsin re-introduced it in 1994.
