mytOn October 18, a Russian-speaking Facebook user shared identical videos (1;2), claiming that they showed an anti-war protest held in St. Petersburg. The footage depicts a street demonstration.
The video is being circulated manipulatively – it does not show an anti-war protest but rather footage of a 2021 protest march in St. Petersburg against the arrest of Alexei Navalny. As of October 18, 2025, there are no open-source confirmations or reports from reputable media outlets indicating that any anti-war rally took place in St. Petersburg on that date.
On January 23, 2021, thousands of people gathered on Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg to protest the arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The video in question was published the same day on X by Matthew Luxmoore, a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Russia, who credited a Telegram channel as his source.
Post from Matthew Luxmoore’s X account
The footage from the St. Petersburg protest spread widely on X and drew significant attention. People took to the streets in support of the Russian opposition leader after Navalny was detained upon returning from Germany to Russia and sentenced to 30 days in custody. Demonstrations demanding his release took place not only in St. Petersburg but across almost all of Russia.
After February 24, 2022, following the invasion of Ukraine, anti-war demonstrations were held in Russia, during which thousands of people were detained. However, there is no evidence from open sources that any anti-war demonstration occurred in St. Petersburg on October 18, 2025.
Thus, the claim that the video shows an anti-war protest against the Russia-Ukraine war is manipulative. In reality, the footage depicts a protest march against the arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. It is noteworthy that Myth Detector has previously fact-checked this same video – at that time, it was falsely claimed to show a protest against vaccination held in the Netherlands.
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