The Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center in Yekaterinburg has removed the anti-war statement it posted to its website on Feb. 25 — the day after Moscow launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The site now displays a 404 error message instead, Russian news outlet It's My City (IMC) reports.
According to IMC, the leadership of the cultural center denounced the invasion of Ukraine and called for an immediate end to Russian President Vladimir Putin's "special operation."
"Realizing the full measure of responsibility that lies with us as citizens of the stronger side of the fratricidal conflict, we call for an immediate halt to hostilities," the Yeltsin Center said in the statement.
The Presidential Center described what is happening in Ukraine as "an unthinkable disaster for both countries and their peoples."
Citing the web archive, IMC reports that the last time the anti-war statement was visible was April 1. The 404 error message has appeared since April 15, according to the outlet.
Representatives of the cultural center told IMC that they removed the anti-war message at the request of law enforcement agencies, though they did not specify the exact problem with the statement.
The Yeltsin Center incident is the latest in a string of anti-war messages that have appeared throughout Russia.
Earlier this month, the Russian radio station Kommersant FM was hacked and briefly broadcast anti-war and Ukrainian patriotic songs before it was pulled off the air.
In March, Russian state-TV producer Marina Ovsyannikova appeared on the set of the Russian Channel One evening news program, chanting "Stop the war!" and denouncing government "propaganda." She was found guilty of organizing an illegal protest by a Moscow court and fined 30,000 rubles (roughly $280).
Also in March, a new, anonymous form of protest emerged: writing anti-war messages on Russian currency.
The anti-war messages appear on banknotes and rubles in handwritten or stamped ink and common phrases spotted on platforms such as Twitter, Telegram, and Reddit include "no to war" and "Russians against war."
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