ashley reedy is a human rights lawyer who works at the international criminal tribunal for the former yugoslavia. she's now we senior legal advisor at human rights watch. we appreciate your time. thank you. thank you. thank you very much. security forces in russia have detained more than 5000 anti war protesters across the country. the arrests were reported by independence rights group, o. v. info, which says it's the highest number of detentions in a single day. since the invasion began, police arrested people in several russian cities including moscow and saint petersburg. they warned that organizers and participants in demonstrations will face charges. authorities have imposed restrictions on protests citing the coven 19 pandemic. we can now talk to constantine edgar, to w's russian affairs analyst constantine a. tell us a little bit more about these protests and were you surprised by the large number of protesters? well, it's not really yet a very large number for a country of 140000000 people, but it is significant. i think it's coming close to the protests that were held in 2021