Dozens of municipal deputies from Moscow and St. Petersburg on Sept. 12 issued a public statement calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to resign. "President Putin's actions are detrimental to the future of Russia and its citizens," reads the petition shared [8] on Twitter by Xenia Torstrem, a deputy for St. Petersburg's Semyonovsky district. The call comes amid claims of vote-rigging in the previous week's local and regional elections—as well as a dramatic advance by Kyiv's forces that marks the most significant setback yet in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Several towns have been liberated in the Ukrainian counter-offensive in northeastern Kharkiv region.
The call's signatories, numbering some 30, are at risk of long prison terms under laws passed shortly after the invasion was launched, which have facilitated a harsh crackdown [9] on dissent.
Days before the deputies' call was issued, the Council of Smolninskoye Municipal Okrug in St. Petersburg approved a resolution calling on the State Duma to bring charges of treason against Putin over the "aggressive invasion of Ukraine," saying that "[t]he whole world looks upon this as a war crime." The Smolninskoye Council was subsequently dissolved by judicial order. (The Moscow Times [12], Deep Dive [13], EuroWeekly News [14], EuroWeekly News [15])
