Putin's announcement of military gathering protests across Russia, 1300 arrested

International Desk: Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a new order for the military draft for the first time in Russia since World War II. In that order, he announced a partial military gathering in Russia "to protect the motherland".

And then protests spread across Russia. Russian security forces have detained more than 1300 citizens in the protests that have spread since Wednesday (September 21). Reuters reported this information in a report on Thursday (September 22) citing a human rights group.

Protests spread across Russia within hours of Putin's announcement of a partial military buildup in Russia to "protect the motherland," and Russian security forces detained more than 1,311 people across the country as of Wednesday night, reports said.

Independent protest monitoring group OVD-Info said more than 1,311 people had been detained as of Wednesday night, according to data collected from 38 Russian cities. Of these, at least 502 were detained in Moscow and 524 in St. Petersburg, Russia's second most populous city.

Unauthorized gatherings are illegal under anti-protest laws in Russia. Russian Interior Ministry official Irina Volk said in a statement that (security forces) officials foiled attempts to stage small protests.

"In several regions, unauthorized actions (protests) were attempted, but very few participants gathered," Russian news agencies quoted Volk as saying.

He also said, 'These have been stopped. And those who violated the law were arrested and taken to the police station for investigation.

Reservists who have served or trained in the Russian military for future military service will now be called up to fight, Vladimir Putin's directive on Wednesday said.

Speaking after President Putin, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday that 300,000 reserve troops would be called up to fight in Ukraine. He said, this number is only one percent of Russia's total 2.5 million reserve soldiers.

After Putin's announcement, the military gathering started on Wednesday, the BBC reported.

One-way flights out of Russia rose in price on Wednesday and were selling quickly after Putin's new military order, Reuters said.

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