After what was reported to have been a more soft beginning to its invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces are now understood to be going in harder, with increased usage of heavier aerial and artillery assaults on urban areas. It appears this increased force abroad is being matched with an upped presence of riot police at home.
James Longman, ABC News Foreign Correspondent who is currently reporting from Moscow, posted a video from the city today, on Sunday, illustrating the efforts being employed to keep protests to a low.
In it, a large column of men in uniform marched through the streets, making well known to all the power of the Russian state.
Midway through recording, Mr Longman casually stated: “There’s more people being arrested and taken off in trucks.”
The suggestion is these were arrested for demonstrating against Putin’s invasion.
He then went on to describe a large, silent, peaceful protest taking place at that moment in striking terms.
Mr Longman said: “All around me here are these huge groups of people, mostly young people, who are just walking.
“They are circulating in this square.
“They are not doing anything – they are not shouting, they are not screaming. They just want to make themselves known.”
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He added: “It’s almost like these [protesters] are shoals of fish and these [military men] are sharks.”
While “riot police, barricades and armoured trucks” have made it “almost virtually impossible” to protest in the city, people are adopting atypical approaches to demonstrate their frustration with Putin’s actions.
Mr Longman said: “It’s not a mistake that they’ve come out.”
When urging British nationals living in Russia to leave the country yesterday, on Saturday, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office also drew attention to a “heavy police presence” across the country to prevent anti-war protests from occurring.
That many are still eager to demonstrate their frustrations is in line with former Regular Army Officer Colonel Simon Diggins’s view that the war is not about “peoples” but about “one man” – Vladimir Putin.
Colonel Diggins told Express.co.uk: “This is not about peoples at all.
“It is about one man – his vision of what he thinks Russia should be.”
But it is impossible to determine the true extent of anger at Putin’s invasion.
It is perhaps likely younger Russians, who are more likely to use social media, take a less favourable view of recent events than older Russians who are more regular viewers of Russian state TV and are, according to some accounts, more deferential to their leader.