(CNN) — Elected municipal officials in Russia’s Saint Petersburg region have called on the State Duma (parliament) to impeach Russian President Vladimir Putin for “high treason”, in a rare opposition move in Russia.
The officials published, via Twitter, the details of their request to Parliament, saying that “Putin is responsible for the death of healthy young Russians who can join the labor market better than joining the army, and causing Russia’s economic contraction and brain drain, and the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). to the east, including the accession of Finland and Sweden to the alliance, and the adverse repercussions of the special military operation it launched once morest Ukraine.”
The officials later said that St. Petersburg police had summoned them for “defaming the ruling establishment.” Police later released two of the four officials who had been summoned, all of whom are expected to face fines.
The Kremlin is trying hard to stifle any criticism of the invasion of Ukraine.
After launching a large-scale invasion in late February of Ukraine, the Russian government moved quickly to shut down the country’s remaining free press institutions and introduced a new law imposing severe criminal penalties for publishing “false” information.
According to the independent group OVD-Info, which tracks arrests in Russia, 16,437 people have been arrested or detained for their anti-war activism in Russia since the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
