Have there been any legally held demonstrations against the war (or against the "specially military operation") in Russia?

Question

I'm well aware that Russian authorities have cracked down on spontaneous/illegal anti war demonstrations. Whereas for the pro-military-intervention ones, e.g. using the "Z" sign...

Have any Russian authorities granted any permits such anti-war/anti-military-intervention demonstrations to be held legally? If, so what kind of banners were allowed at such legally held anti-war demonstrations? I'm talking about the war in Ukraine, so was e.g. "stop the special military operation" a banner that was seen at a legally held protest in Russia, for instance?

Answer 1

Alexei Gorinov was permitted to display his poster "Do you still need this war" during his trial, where he has been sentenced to seven years in prison after criticising Ukraine war.

It is a single man only demonstration but I assume the law court is a legal and official environment and the state was in control to prevent him doing so easily. He was also accessible to mass media reporters to make pictures as seen in the referenced article. Image credit ovd.news Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

This behavior increased the duration of the sentence handed very significantly.

Answer 2

I am not aware of any permits for anti-war/anti-military-intervention demonstrations to be held legally in Russia. I have been monitoring Russian and Ukrainian social media since December 2021, when the preparations for the invasion started escalating rapidly. As you mentioned, illegal actions have been taking place, often limited to single people. In most cases, the participants have been prosecuted by the government.

REFERENCES:

Protests against the Russian invasion of Ukraine started February 24, 2022. They take place as demonstrations, one-person pickets and other social actions in Russia as well as in other countries. In Russia, anti-war protests are banned and are suppressed by the police; many of the participants are prosecuted for criminal and civil crimes. According to the human rights organization OVD-Info (ОВД-Инфо), altogether from February 24 until May 9 in russia 15441 people have been detained for participation in anti-war protests. - Protests against the Russian invasion of Ukraine - Wikipedia (in Russian)

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Below are a few recent tweets from from the Twitter account of the human rights organization OVD-Info (ОВД-Инфо):

[Municipal representative] Elena Kotyonochkina during the session of the council of representatives called Russia "a fascist state" and, following the reports filed by informants, left the country. Elena is a colleague of Ilya Yashin and Alexey Gorinov. A criminal proceeding about "fake [information dissemination]" was filed against all three of them." - OVD-Info, July 22, 2022

In Moscow police detained Anna Mikhaylova, who participated a one-person picket with the poster "No war", as well as Vladislav Gur'yanov, who made photos of the woman.

OVD-Info, July 22, 2022

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An activist from Ivanovo was detained for a single person picket - he held the poster with "*** *****" written on it. The detained man was charged with a new law about "discrediting Russian military".

(Note that the words on the poster could be interpreted as "net vojne" ("no war" in Russian))

Maxim Drukovsky. TJournal, March 12, 2022

Answer 3

The New York Times thinks that the funeral of M. Gorbachev is.

For many, the funeral was a vivid reminder of the rights that Russians have lost under the leadership of President Vladimir V. Putin and as a result of the almost complete dismantling of Mr. Gorbachev’s legacy, culminating with the six-month-old war that Russia is prosecuting in Ukraine to take back former Soviet territory.

The funeral was a rare opportunity for like-minded Russians to gather in one place at a time when such protests are otherwise criminalized. It matters that V. Putin has not attended.