More than 800 arrests are made while anti-war protestors are dragged away by officers in blacked-out helmets after taking to the streets in 37 cities following Putin's decision to mobilise the country due to heavy losses in Ukraine.
Police wearing blacked-out helmets are dragging anti-mobilisation protestors off the streets of Russia tonight, as thousands come out to demonstrate against being sent to the front lines in Ukraine.
More than 800 people have been arrested tonight in 37 cities across Russia, including Moscow and St Petersburg, as they voiced their anger at President Vladimir Putin's order to mobilise 300,000 reservists.
There have been angry clashes between activists and security forces, with protestors being forcefully taken to the ground and removed from the streets as the government cracks down on vocal dissent.
Demonstrators tonight chanted anti-war slogans, with some calling for Putin himself to go to the trenches in Ukraine, while other's have angrily proclaimed they're not willing to die for him.
It is reported a total of 828 arrests have been made so far, with this number likely to rise throughout the night as the government cracks down on vocal dissent.
In the capital Moscow 303 people have been arrested, while the former imperial capital of St Petersburg saw 279 taken into custody, and 40 more have been arrested in Yekaterinburg, a city east of the Ural Mountains.
As protests spread, many men of fighting age opted to try and leave the country, driven by fears the border might soon be closed, with tickets for one-way flights out of Moscow being snapped up by worried Russians.
The decision to mobilise the country is the first of its type in the country since the Second World War, and has come as Russian forces sustain humiliating losses to advancing Ukrainian troops in the east of the country.
The first protests against the partial mobilisation took place in Siberia, with demonstrators risking being jailed under draconian laws forbidding criticism of the armed forces.
Videos circulating on social media show people marching through the streets of Moscow chanting 'no to war', and mass arrests by armed police wearing riot gear and all black clothing.
One protester was hauled into detention in Novosibirsk after shouting at police and FSB officers at a rally: 'I am not going to die for Putin, or for you!'