Some lawmakers from a district council openly oppose Putin’s war in Ukraine and face serious consequences. They held a council meeting open to the public. Many people showed up, but the police also showed up in large forces, but no arrests were made
Councilors in Smolninskoye, a district in St. Petersburg, the city where Vladimir Putin was born, accused the Russian president of treason.
On September 7, they petitioned the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, to impeach President Putin over the war in Ukraine – although Russians are not allowed to call it that. Instead, they should treat the war as a “special military operation”.
Nikita Yuprivev joined the Smolninskoye Council in 2019. When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, he and other lawmakers from across the political spectrum asked for permission to hold anti-war demonstrations that day. The request was denied. On March 2, Yufriev and his colleagues invited the residents of St. Petersburg to join an open council meeting.
“Many people showed up, but the police also showed up in large forces, there were many policemen with vans to take them to the detention center, but things remained calm,” Yufriev told the German broadcasting corporation DW, which was blocked in Russia by the way. “We sent an appeal to President Putin, and we call on him to end the special operation.”
Last August, Yufriev himself sent a personal message to Putin, calling on him to end the “special military operation” for humanitarian reasons. This time the Kremlin responded, justifying the war as a “special military operation for the demobilization of Ukraine.”
YuFrev MP Dmitri Palyuga submitted a petition on September 7 to the State Duma. Both politicians emphasize that they acted completely in accordance with Russian law. “Until now, there was no precedent for a conviction following a petition sent to a state body. In fact, Russian law excludes this possibility,” Palyuga tells DW.
According to him, he came up with the idea of sending the petition after seeing considerable criticism of the invasion of Ukraine expressed on social networks, including the pro-Kremlin Telegram channels. Many accused their president of acting “against Russia’s interests”. Last July, Alexei Gurinov, a politician from Moscow, was sentenced to seven years behind bars for “spreading lies” about Russia’s armed forces. Palyuga is well aware of the Gorynov case and knows that speaking out against Putin can have serious consequences. “We know we’re taking a risk, but we feel it’s the right thing to do,” he told DW.
“If they want to punish us, they will,” said Yufriev. “But what are we supposed to do? Shut up?” Yufriev is convinced that most Russians do not support the war.
“We were all brought up by a generation that experienced World War II,” he claimed. “They are talking about a ‘special operation’ here, but people are starting to understand what is really happening, how many dead there are. Our people are peaceful and I think people in Russia will soon start opposing everything that is happening,” he concluded.