Local councilors call for Putin’s removal for ‘treason’ One member was fined $780 for disparaging the authorities A rare act of public dissent by elected MPs
A group of local St. Petersburg politicians who have called for President Vladimir Putin to be fired over the war in Ukraine face a possible dissolution of the regional council following a judge’s ruling on Tuesday, one of the lawmakers said. Nikita Yuferev said the judge ruled that a number of previous council meetings were invalid, paving the way for the governor to dissolve it. Another council member, Dmitry Palyuga, said the same court later fined him 47,000 rubles ($780) for “discrediting” the authorities by calling for Putin’s removal. Court officials could not be reached by phone for comment. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Four more members of the Smolninskoye local council are due to appear in court in the next two days. Last week, a group of councilors called on the State Duma to charge Putin with treason and remove him from power, citing a range of reasons, including Russia’s military losses in Ukraine and damage to its economy by the western sanctions. Another local lawmaker said 65 municipal representatives from St. Petersburg, Moscow and several other regions signed a petition she published Monday calling for Putin’s resignation. While not a current threat to Putin’s power, the moves mark rare expressions of dissent from elected representatives at a time when Russians face heavy prison sentences for “discrediting” the armed forces or spreading “deliberately false information” about them. read more Palyuga told Reuters before Tuesday’s hearing that the group’s appeals were aimed not only at liberal Russians but also at “people loyal to the authorities who start to doubt when they see the lack of success of the Russian military.” He said he expected the number of such people to rise after last week’s lightning counter-offensive in which Ukraine drove Russian forces out of dozens of towns and recaptured a large swath of territory in its northeastern Kharkiv region. read more “Of course, what is happening now has successfully coincided with our agenda. Many people who liked Putin are beginning to feel betrayed. I think that the more successfully the Ukrainian army operates, the more such people will become,” he said.
“VERY, VERY THIN” LINE.
Russian political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya said the biggest risk for the Kremlin was not the advisers’ protest itself, but the risk of responding too harshly to it. “The reaction, or overreaction, can cause more political damage to the regime than this petition. But I have no doubt that everyone who signed the petition will (come) under political pressure,” said Stanovaya, founder of the independent project of analysis R. .Politics. Thousands of legal cases have been brought against people accused of discrediting the military, which usually result in first-time fines, but a Moscow district councilor was jailed for seven years in July after being convicted of spreading false information. Several other journalists and opposition figures have been charged and face possible prison terms.[Readmore[readmore[Διαβάστεπερισσότερα[readmore Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that critical views are tolerated, within the limits of the law. “As long as they stay within the law, that’s pluralism, but the line is very, very fine, one has to be very careful here,” he said. read more Ksenia Thorstrom, a local St. Petersburg councilor who released Monday’s petition calling for Putin’s resignation, said it was too early to tell how the campaign would play out. “Demanding a politician to resign is completely normal. There can be nothing criminal about it,” he told Reuters. “Of course there is a certain risk, but showing solidarity with our colleagues – independent politicians who still remain in Russia – is much more important.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Additional reporting by Filipp Lebedev. Edited by Bill Berkrot Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Mark Trevelyan Thomson Reuters Lead writer for Russia and the CIS. He has worked as a journalist on 7 continents and reported from 40+ countries, with posts in London, Wellington, Brussels, Warsaw, Moscow and Berlin. Covered the breakup of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Security correspondent from 2003 to 2008. Speaks French, Russian and (rusty) German and Polish.
