In a brave display of resistance, local lawmakers in northern Russia called on the State Duma to censure President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine. Instead, the lawmakers were quickly brought up on criminal charges, accused of discrediting the Russian army.
“We ask you,” the lawmakers wrote, “to initiate a treason charge against the president of the Russian Federation to remove him from office.”
The resolution’s authors conceded that they had little hope their request would be acted but that they believed they achieved their largely symbolic goal: to let other antiwar Russians know that they are not alone in their sentiment, which is often drowned out by the state’s militaristic rhetoric, echoed by propagandists on state-controlled television.
“We understand that Putin won’t shed a tear and stop the operation,” Nikita Yuferev, one of the seven councilors who wrote the document, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “These requests are written for people who are still in Russia and for whom the propaganda tries to assure that they are the minority, that there are no people who are against this.”The Lomonosovsky district’s statement slammed Putin’s rhetoric and urged him to step side.
In March, the Smolninsky councilors also wrote a letter to Putin urging him to stop the war as “the fate of thousands of Russian servicemen and millions Ukrainians are at stake.”Shortly, after Russian troops marched across the border, the Kremlin dialed up the level of the repressions against its opponents, outlawing the use of the word “war” when talking about the invasion and threatening those who publicly criticize the Russian army with fines and jail terms.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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