Government: Opposition:[33][34][35][36] Vladimir Putin(Supreme Commander-in-chief) Mikhail Mishustin Dmitry Medvedev Sergei Shoigu Sergey Lavrov Maria Zakharova Alexey Nechayev Nikolai Patrushev Alexander Pryadko[111] Radiy Khabirov Ramzan Kadyrov Yevgeny Balitsky Denis Pushilin Vladimir Saldo Leonid Pasechnik No centralized leadershipSome notable figures: Alexei Navalny # Yulia Navalnaya Leonid Volkov Lev Ponomaryov Maxim Katz Mikhail Kasyanov Garry Kasparov Mikhail Khodorkovsky Leonid Ivashov Marina Ovsyannikova Ilya Yashin Ilya Ponomarev Gennady Gudkov Andrey Illarionov Lyudmila Kotesova Mark Feygin Igor Kochetkov Boris Nadezhdin Grigory Yavlinsky Mikhail Svetov Yekaterina Duntsova Fail Alsynov (POW) Maria Vladimirovna George Mikhailovich Rostislav Romanov Inez Storer Olga Andreevna Romanov Dorrit Reventlow Nikolai Kirillovich Romanov Anton Bakov Akhmed Zakayev Post-Minsk II conflict Attacks on civilians Related Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, anti-war demonstrations and protests broke out across Russia.

[119] On the afternoon of the invasion, the Investigative Committee of Russia issued a warning to Russians that they would face legal repercussions for joining unsanctioned protests related to "the tense foreign political situation".

[143][144] On 1 March, reports and photographs appeared in social media, also republished and confirmed by Novaya Gazeta, showing primary school children behind bars, arrested by police in Moscow for laying flowers at the Ukrainian embassy and holding signs saying the repeated "No to war".

[148] On 4 March, the activist Yulia Galyamina was detained and held in custody pending trial, charged with violating the law on public events by trying to organise an anti-war protest.

[155] On 8 March, International Women's Day, the Feminist Anti-War Resistance group reported that women laid flowers at war monuments across 94 Russian and international cities,[156] including Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kanash, Yaroslavl, Syktyvkar, Smolensk, Luga, Lytkarino, Izhevsk, Volgograd, Irkutsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Ufa, Omsk, Mytishchi, Gelendzhik, Perm, Kazan, Zelenograd, Balashov, Saratov, Biysk, Khimki, Chelyabinsk, Krasnodar, Novovoronezh, Vologda, Korolev, Troitsk, Serpukhov, Vladimir, Revda, Tolyatti, Kaliningrad, Naberezhnye Chelny, Volgodonsk, Ramenskoye, Samara, Leninavan farm, Stavropol, Arkhangelsk, Yoshkar-Ola, Krasnogorsk, Novokuibyshevsk, Zheleznovodsk, Murom, Snegiri, Nakhabino, Rostov-on-Don, Cheboksary, Saransk, Dzerzhinsky, Veliky Novgorod, Tyumen, Tobolsk, Podolsk, Tula, Grebnevo village, Dolgoprudny, Murino, Vladikavkaz and Alagir.

[160] In the week following International Women's Day, several videos went viral on social media showing Russian police arresting protesters for simply holding up a blank sign.

[185][186] The artist Alexandra Skochilenko was arrested for allegedly replacing supermarket labels with messages protesting the Mariupol theatre airstrike, and jailed for eight weeks pending trial under the Russian fake news laws.

[200] Ovsyannikova, the daughter of a Ukrainian father and a Russian mother, also released a pre-recorded video at OVD-Info in which she expressed shame for her part in spreading "Kremlin propaganda" at Channel One.

Muratov, the journalist Mikhail Zygar, the film director Vladimir Mirzoyev, and others signed a document stating that Ukraine is not a threat to Russia and calling for Russian citizens "to say no to this war.

"[233] Igor Kochetkov, the head of the Russian LGBT Network, launched an open letter against the war and stating that "There are a lot of problems in our country, including the spread of anti-human ideas, which often come from high-ranking officials.

[236][237] In April 2023, anti-Kremlin activists gathered at a Paris rally organised by Navalny's team and urged the European Union (EU) to ban Svetlana Maniovich, ex-wife of Timur Ivanov, from living in Europe and freeze her assets.

"[267] On 23 March, Putin's longtime advisor and Russian climate envoy Anatoly Chubais resigned from his position and left Russia due to his opposition to the war.

[268] Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader who was imprisoned in January 2021, called Putin an "obviously insane tsar" and urged Russians to continue daily street protests: "Go out onto the main square of your city every weekday at 19.00 and at 14.00 at weekends and on holidays".

[269] Later, he called out Putin's partial mobilization order by comparing the recruitment of prisoners to the fictional Suicide Squad, asking "What an army made of murderers, robbers, brigands could accomplish in combat?

[279] Ukrainian-born Russian politician and diplomat Natalia Poklonskaya, who rose to prominence during Russia's annexation of Crimea, called the invasion a catastrophe, also adding "People are dying, houses and entire cities are destroyed [leaving] millions of refugees.

[293] On 25 February, the ice hockey star Alex Ovechkin, an ardent Putin supporter, made an ambiguous statement against the war without mentioning Ukraine or Russia.

[294] On 26 February, Georgian basketball player Tornike Shengelia announced he was prematurely terminating his contract with CSKA Moscow "in protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine".

[295] Liza Peskova, the daughter of Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov, shared an image of the "No to war" hashtag on her Instagram story but then quickly deleted it and criticized the protests.

"[310] The founders of the "Immortal Regiment" commemoration movement, in which ordinary Russians carry photographs of veteran family members in marches around Russia held annually to mark WWII Victory Day on 9 May, addressed Vladimir Putin in a statement, asking him to "stop the bloodshed".

[329][330] After completing their final broadcast, TV Rain put on a loop of Swan Lake, echoing the efforts of Soviet authorities to bury bad news, including the 1991 attempted coup d'état as the USSR was breaking up.

[346] On 25 March, Russian journalist Izabella Yevloyeva was charged under the "fakes law" after sharing a post on social media that described the "Z" symbol as being "synonymous with aggression, death, pain and shameless manipulation".

[355] In December 2022, a Moscow court sentenced opposition politician Ilya Yashin to eight years and six months imprisonment for his statements about the circumstances of the killings in Bucha on charges of "spreading false information" about the armed forces.

[365] A number of anti-war activists and independent journalists in Russia have had their homes targeted with vandalism since the beginning of the invasion, including having manure and messages calling them traitors left outside their doors.

"[389] An audio recording from a protester arrested that weekend who managed to conceal her phone while detained and interrogated by multiple police documented 11 minutes of physical and verbal abuse, with one officer telling her that "You are the enemies of Russia.

[419] A study by researchers affiliated with the London School of Economics found that stated support for the war among Russians dropped from 68% to 53% when asked indirectly about the invasion in polls.

[421] Alvina Hoffmann of King's College London said that the "seemingly broad anti-war coalition is remarkable, given that the "Russian political apparatus has been systematically dismantling opposition movements, creating a climate where any form of protest is met with oppression.

"[437] Maria Silina of the Université du Québec à Montréal has stated that "the overwhelming majority of [anti-war protesters] were women, queer or trans — many of whom were rarely visible as political activists in Russia due to homophobic laws against them.

Rather than a full-scale assault, the narrative is of a "special operation" to protect ethnic Russians in the so-called "republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk from "genocide" being carried out by Ukraine's "neo-Nazi" government.

[444] According to researcher Mikhail Sokolov, "If you are younger than 30, live in a big city, have a higher education and do not watch television, the probability that you will not support the actions of the Russian army exceeds 80%.

"[451] Erica Chenoweth of the Harvard Kennedy School has stated that "protests are necessary but insufficient predictors of when elites decide to shift their loyalty" and that it was "important not to underestimate that Putin does have a real base that's incredibly loyal to him.