The silent protests taking place in Russia

Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova has been praised for “telling the truth” by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after her brave anti-war protest on live TV on Monday evening.

Ovsyannikova, an editor at the state-sponsored Channel One, ran onto the set of a Russian evening news programme shouting “stop the war, no to war”. She held a sign, clearly visible behind the presenter, which read: “no war, stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here”.

Her placard could be seen for a few seconds before the channel cut away from the live broadcast to a pre-recorded segment. Ovsyannikova was fined for the outburst and, on Tuesday evening, said she had been questioned for 14 hours and was not given access to legal support. French President Emmanuel Macron has since offered her protection should she need it.

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While Ovsyannikova’s courageous protest has made headlines around the world, other Russians have been risking their lives to protest quietly.

Emoji code

The BBC’s Reality Check team reported that Russians were using an emoji-based code to organise and share details about anti-war protests.

As Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, “an image started to spread on social media – a picture of the Russian poet Pushkin, the number seven and rows of the ‘person walking’ emoji”, said Reality Check’s Rachel Schraer last week.

“To those in the know, the meaning was clear – a location (Pushkin Square, in Moscow), a time and a call to protest against the government’s actions.”

Since then, the “walking person” emoji has been used by Russians to signify when and where they are planning to protest, along with phrases such as “the weather is great for a walk”.

Unauthorised protests have been banned in Russia since 2014 with “repeat offenders” risking up to five years in prison. Schraer said BBC News had heard of people being detained based “solely” on their social media activity, including one woman who was arrested for tweeting: “I haven’t walked in the centre for a long time”, and quoting another tweet calling for people to rally.

Along with the “walking person” emoji, the “sunflower” emoji is being used by social media users to signify their support for Ukraine. Ukraine's national flower “has become a global symbol of resistance, unity and hope”, said the Washington Post.

Green ribbons

Various news sites have reported that Russians who are against the invasion of Ukraine have been leaving green ribbons in public places.

An unverified video posted to TikTok shows a man handing out green ribbons, as well as green ribbons tied to a handrail and a bridge. The video has received 2.6 million views and is set to the Rag’n’Bone Man song Human.

“They can’t silence green ribbons”, wrote one TikTok user. Another explained the significance of the green ribbons, reminding users that “yellow and blue make green” – a reference to Ukraine’s national colours.

Flowers

On International Women’s Day on 8 March, Russian women, led by the Feminist Anti-War Resistance group, left flowers at Soviet war memorials as part of a subtle protest against the war.

The flowers in question were “chrysanthemums and tulips bound with ribbons in blue and yellow – the colours of the now-ubiquitous Ukrainian flag”, said Aliide Naylor in Art Review, the London-based contemporary art magazine.

“We, the women of Russia, refuse to celebrate 8 March this year: don’t give us flowers, it’s better to take to the streets and lay them in memory of the dead civilians of Ukraine,” a statement from the collective read.

Graffiti

Protest art in the form of graffiti has also sprung up in Russian cities since the invasion of Ukraine almost three weeks ago.

Last month, The Sun reported that graffiti reading “Adolf Putin” had been “scrawled” in a metro station in St Petersburg – the Russian president’s home town. In the same city, someone carved “no to war” into a patch of ice, which authorities then attempted to paint over.

These brave street artists have seen their work “covered in bizarre and troubling ways”, said Naylor. “Even a piece of text reading ‘Ukraine is not an enemy’ might be simply graffitied over by Russian ‘patriots’ painting a letter ‘Z’ over their work.”

Empty placards

Earlier this week, Newsweek reported that anti-war protesters had been detained by police for “holding up blank posters”.

A video showing a woman being approached and escorted away by two police officers for protesting with a blank sign went viral over the weekend. “Police in Nizhny Novgorod arrested a demonstrator today for protesting with a blank sign. Welcome to Russia in 2022,” tweeted Kevin Rothrock, an editor of the independent Russian and English-language news site Meduza.

Rothrock also tweeted that a man had been arrested in the city of Ivanovo for demonstrating “with a sign that was comprised entirely of asterisks”.