Due to the war in Ukraine, council members in Vladimir Putin’s birthplace have asked that the Russian president be charged with treason and removed from office.
A group of council members from Smolninskoye, a town in St. Petersburg where Putin was born, made the request in an extraordinary appeal to the Russian parliament.
They said that Putin’s actions in Ukraine had caused the deaths of hundreds of Russian military members and severely damaged the nation’s economy.
In response to “young, healthy folks are dying and being maimed,” the council members voiced their alarm.
They said that as a consequence of Putin’s rash actions, NATO is expanding and Ukraine is getting access to new cutting-edge technologies.
We have stated the reasons why we believe that this is high treason, said Nikita Yuferev, a 34-year-old councillor in the local government.
The members of the council emphasised that Russians must understand that “Putin’s actions have resulted in a doubling of the territorial boundary between Russia and NATO.”
Since beginning their invasion of Ukraine six months ago, Putin’s forces have suffered heavy losses in personnel and equipment, and the conflict has essentially come to a standstill with them controlling about a fifth of the country.
Precision strikes launched by Ukrainian forces using high-tech Western weapons are undermining Russia’s ability to fight, and as its supplies of more modern equipment run out, Moscow is turning to outdated weapons.
And today on the front lines in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared “excellent news,” claiming his troops had retaken a number of Russian towns and villages.
The 35-year-old Dmitry Palyuga stated that Putin’s war “harms the security of Russia and its population” and backed the demand that he be charged with treason for the conflict in Ukraine.
In reference to one of the stated goals of the Russian president, which is to demilitarise Ukraine, Palyuga stated to The Insider, “We see precisely the reverse occurring.”
Even if we do not agree with all of President Putin’s stated goals, his speech alone puts the security of the Russian Federation at risk.
We want to make it clear to the general public that [democratic representatives] oppose the current course and think Putin is endangering Russia.
We want to show the public that we are not embarrassed to talk about it.
The local leaders are aware that their request would not be granted by the State Duma, the lower house of parliament under the hands of Putin’s minions.
Nevertheless, they have kept up the demand.
It is imperative to show that there are some who oppose the war, according to Yuferev.
He said, “We are in Russia, and there are a lot of us.”
Out of the 20 council members present, 10 supported the call for Putin to be charged with treason, constituting a quorum.
Three individuals did not vote, and seven people cast yes votes.
The councillors’ proposal that Putin be punished with treason for his war in Ukraine is a rare example of vocal opposition to the conflict. Putin’s invasion opponents often died in mysterious ways.
Last week, the body of the president of a Russian oil company that had backed Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was found inexplicably hanging from a sixth-floor window of a Moscow hospital.
Around 7.30 a.m. on September 1, On the sixth floor of the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow at about 7:00 p.m. local time, 67-year-old Ravil Maganov, the chairman of the Russian oil company Lukoil, fell from a window and died immediately.
Despite claims from law enforcement that Maganov’s death was a suicide and the absence of CCTV cameras on the area of the building where he fell, Russian state media quickly reported as much.
Lukoil, of which Maganov was chairman, was one of the few large Russian companies to demand an end to hostilities in Ukraine when Moscow invaded.
In a statement issued in the days after the invasion, the Lukoil board demanded a “quick” end to the hostilities while expressing their sympathies to everyone affected by the “tragedy.”
Seven months later, Maganov’s body was found after he had fallen from the hospital window.
He was the most recent in a string of lately deceased high-ranking Russian officials, many of whom mysteriously jumped out of windows.
Maganov has joined a long list of Russian oil tycoons who have passed away under mysterious circumstances.
Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43, a former senior executive for the large energy company Lukoil, was found dead in unexplained circumstances under May.
The oligarch, who owned a prosperous shipping company, reportedly had therapy with toad venom that was injected under the patient’s skin.
Shortly after, Subbotin had a heart attack and was given a tranquillizer produced from the valerian herb.