Anti-war protests in Russia have reportedly spread to 147 cities across the country, and more than 13,015 people have been arrested since February 24 when the invasion of Ukraine began.

According to human rights watchdog OVD-Info, which is tracking the Vladimir Putin government’s crackdown on Russian anti-war protesters, said on Sunday that at least 4,640 Russians had been detained across 65 cities on March 6 alone.

The watch dog, which Russia treats as a foreign agent, further said that police were resorting to beatings or the use of tasers on peaceful protesters, adding that in some cities, police were also checking content on people’s phones.

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“There have been known cases of police officers searching for protest videos on the phones of passersby in central Moscow, with reports of detainment. If a person refused to unlock his phone, they were threatened with an administrative charge of disobeying the police,” wrote OVD-Info.

Further, OVD-Info reported that in several cities, police officers without badges or other identification marks had been spotted carrying out brutal detentions, highlighting the very real possibility of police brutality being obscured by anonymity.

The watch dog said that at least 30 counts of police brutality had been confirmed on March 6 alone, and wrote: “There are reports of torture at police stations. At the Brateevo police station in Moscow, detainees were hit in the face and head with bottles, kicked in the legs, kneed in the stomach, dragged by their hair and had antiseptic sprayed in their faces.”

“Additionally, in some police stations, including at the Brateevo police station, lawyers were not allowed to visit detainees,” it added, highlighting that detainees were being denied basic rights.

More than a dozen journalists were also detained on March 6, and OVD-Info reported that dozens of protesters are also facing criminal charges.

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Days earlier, Russia had criminalised the reporting of ‘fake news’ about the situation in Ukraine in the country, leading to an exodus of major foreign media outlets and their journalists.

OVD-Info was founded by Moscow-based journalist Grigory Okhotin and programmer Daniil Beilinson in 2011. The organisation, which covered protests in Russia between 2011-2013, specializes in coverage of politically motivated persecution, as well as in the reporting of abuse by Russian authorities.

However, of late, it has come under fire from the Russian government, and in 2021, the Russian Ministry of Justice designated OVD-Info as a “foreign agent,” which critics say was a move to stifle dissent.