Accusing Vladimir Putin of treason and removing him from office: this is precisely the proposal made by a group of deputies from St. Petersburg to the State Duma. Just one day later, the authorities initiated investigations - but not against the Kremlin boss.
In recent months there have been repeated attempts by individual MPs and regional politicians to take action against the Kremlin's war policy. In Saint Petersburg, a group of deputies have now gone further than any of their colleagues before them. City deputies of the Smolninskoye district last Wednesday addressed an appeal to the State Duma with a proposal to charge Russian President Vladimir Putin with treason. This was announced by Deputy Dmitry Palyuga.
Paljuga published the relevant document on his social networks, which, according to him, was approved by the majority of city deputies present at the time of the vote.
The authorities reacted immediately - albeit differently than the MPs wanted. Seven of the politicians were summoned by the police, according to the independent Russian media outlet Mediazona. They are now being investigated for "discrediting the army".
"In our opinion, since the beginning of the special operation on the territory of Ukraine, the actions of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin have shown signs of a crime described in Article 93 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation - high treason," the appeal reads . State Duma deputies have the authority to level such accusations against the President in order to impeach him.
The president's decision to attack Ukraine "endangers the security of Russia and its citizens," the appeal said. Since February 24 of this year, young Russian citizens would die or be made invalids.
The authors also draw attention to the fact that the withdrawal of foreign companies from the Russian market and the exodus of the educated sections of the population cannot leave the economic prosperity of the citizens untouched.
"The NATO bloc is expanding further to the east," the MPs also state - although the president has repeatedly stated that such an approach would endanger the security of the country. "But due to the behavior of the President, Sweden and Finland are now joining NATO. As a result, the border between Russia and the NATO countries will be doubled."
On another point, too, Putin would achieve exactly the opposite of what he preaches. "One of the goals declared by the President of Russia is the demilitarization of Ukraine. But we see the exact opposite. During the special operation, Ukraine received modern technology worth $38 billion."
"With his own rhetoric, Putin is damaging the security of the Russian Federation," Paljuga said in an interview with the investigative Russian platform "The Insider," explaining the motives behind the appeal. "We want to show people that there are MPs who don't agree with the current course and believe that Putin is harming Russia. We want to show people that we're not afraid to talk about it."
A first version of this text was published by Stern.de.
