"This is the fight against windmills, but we are determined"

Petersburg deputies demanded that Putin accuse Putin and dismiss him. This is how they decided on it - and what happened next

In early September, the deputies of the St. Petersburg municipal district "Smolninskoye" turned to the State Duma with a proposal to send Vladimir Putin to resign - and additionally accuse him of the Stateizer for an unleashed war in Ukraine. During the week, the deputies were accused of “discrediting the army” and fined, and the court launched a procedure for the dissolution of the municipal council (because the deputies allegedly did not hold meetings). Medusa spoke with one of the initiators of the appeal - the municipal deputy Nikita Yuferev, about how Petersburg politicians decided on this action, despite the direct threat of criminal prosecution.

I am 34 years old. I am married, I have two little sons and two cats, I am an economist by profession. He came to politics in 2019, when [in St. Petersburg] there were municipal elections. Then in the Municipal Education "Smolninskoye" we formed a coalition from [opposition] deputies.

The battle between the toad and viper helped us to get around United Russia - in St. Petersburg there was tense relations among the United Russia from different clans. Our municipality was very dear to everyone, and they fought with each other. And our team got acquainted with the residents - we knocked on the apartments, distributed business cards, discussed their problems. Against the backdrop of the wickers between the United Russia, people came and voted for us.

[Usually] Work in a municipality is more landscaping: where it is better to put benches, what playgrounds will look like. People turn to deputies with specific problems, they are mainly associated with housing and communal services and improvement. We react, send requests, and then people are locked in the pavement.

Now in our district there has been such a political situation that 12 out of 20 deputies are opposition, eight more - open or latent United Russia. But in order to completely change the executive branch in the municipality, we need to change the head of the Moscow Region. And for this you need at least 14 votes.

Our [acting] chapter - [unicorn] Grigory Rankov. He is, to put it mildly, not the best person. He worked in the municipality for five years, and in 2019 he scored half as much votes than in the previous elections. He lost them , people did not vote for him. And he is finely shitting us, constantly interferes with working - for example, does not sign our budget version. Due to such small skins, we were not able to build systemic work in three years.

[In addition] United Russia and their friends from time to time try to dissolve us. There were already about 30 ships about this. They try to recognize our meetings illegal, and our decisions are unacceptable. But in the courts we showed our work, provided videos of meetings, protocols, quorum - [and the municipal council continued to work].

Now we [municipal deputies] are more often talking about federal problems. It so happened that the entire political field in Russia was cleaned: someone was squeezed out of the country, someone was planted . Among the deputies of the State Duma, there is no one to express themselves, and people [problems that go beyond the municipality] are worried, so they have to be pushed out by municipal deputies.

As for our attitude to the current government, even when we adopted amendments to the Constitution , we made an appeal to citizens that "the best amendment is Putin's resignation." And when the “special operation” began, on the morning of February 24, we took an application for an anti -war rally in Smolny. A tough refusal came to us very quickly, we were called for a conversation in the prosecutor’s office, and some of the colleagues-sorganizers started a case-so many left Russia.

Then at [anti -war] rallies they beat everyone indiscriminately, so we decided that it was dangerous to carry out inconsistent actions. We-as citizens-went to them, but still, as deputies, we had to look for safer ways to express our position-so as not to endanger people.

Therefore, on March 2, we decided to hold an open municipal meeting - the law and regulations allow you to invite everyone to it. Surprisingly, a huge number of people came, about 100 people. Behind us stood a crowd of riot police and autosaki. In such conditions, by a majority vote we accepted a letter from Putin from the municipal council - that the “special operation” should be completed (we never received an answer). Already in August, my colleague, deputy Dmitry Baltrukov, received a protocol for “discrediting” for organizing this “rally” (there was no court on it yet).

Then, statistics appeared that millions of people have already left Ukraine, that the deaths of thousands of civilians have already been documented - and that among them are hundreds of children . I set out this statistics in a letter and sent it to Putin - with a request to give an order to complete the “military operation” for humanitarian reasons. I received a response from the presidential administration to this letter: "Your proposal is considered."

At a meeting of [deputies of Smolninsky] on September 7, deputy Dmitry Palyuga proposed not to turn to Putin, but to the State Duma - with an appeal to send the president. As a basis for resignation, we prescribed the Stateise - in our opinion, it is suitable under the case of the current president. We wrote that Vladimir Putin poses a threat to the security of Russia and its citizens. At the same time, initially on September 7, we had a next meeting, where we had to resolve issues about pedestrian crossings. But sometimes you have to speak out on the federal agenda - there is no one else.

It is important to clarify: we understand that our appeals are not reading, at best they are watched by assistants or advisers. We understand that this will not produce any effect on them, they will not pay and will not finish the “special military operation”, but we hold these shares so that people who are in Russia and who do not agree [with the authorities] know that they are not alone. Now everyone is surrounded by the State Propaganda information bubble, which convinces that everything is behind Putin. We are trying to show people that they are not alone and that there is a whole municipal authority, which opposes the current government and its politics. [In my opinion] The main change should occur in the heads of people.

After we voted for this letter, at night [on September 8] I received an SMS that they were waiting for me in the police department. In the morning we came there with a lawyer for an explanation. Next week, we were all convicted of “discrediting” (without explaining what she was) and fined, but we believe that we did not make anything illegal: we came to the meeting and fulfilled our powers. Our lawyer says that in a normal court this case would not have resisted. But we understand that this is a political matter and that the fines will remain in force.

But the main effect of this letter has already occurred: thousands of people write to us about how they support us. Even the United Russia themselves help us spread this letter - they strained everyone and write about how horror the deputies of the Smolninsky municipal district proposed and why they disagree with this.

[Moreover] The very next day after our meeting, the Council of Deputies of the Lomonosovsky municipality in Moscow made a similar statement. They wrote a beautiful and elegant letter, where they explained to Putin himself, why he does not fit Russia and why his methods are outdated and do not work. Following this, my colleague from the Semenovsky Moscow Region Ksenia Torstoma launched a petition for municipal deputies from all over Russia that Putin should resign. As far as I know, deputies from 35 municipalities have already signed it. In total, she has about 70 verified signatures of municipal deputies.

We carried out many different actions, but there have never been such support from people. We are offered daily to pay fines and write words of gratitude.

Of course, we can begin to pursue us criminally, there is such fear. But our deputies are hardened in battles and often faced pressure. There were fights at our meetings - because the titles came there and tried to put pressure on us. And on August 4, 2021, an explosive device exploded at our meeting, four deputies suffered. Therefore, the fine, in my opinion, is not the worst thing that can happen. We plan to continue work and distribute our legal requirement to resign Vladimir Putin.

At the same time, after the meeting on September 7, the court allowed to dissolve our advice. But the dissolution procedure is quite long, it does not really scare us. Our powers end in 2024, and the dissolution itself will take many months. First, the courts will pass, then all the appeals, then, if the decision remains valid, the governor of St. Petersburg [Alexander Beglov] will have to make his decision and so on. If they do not receive a political team to drive us and they will create the appearance of compliance with the law, then this procedure can take 10-15 months. During this time, we will spend many more meetings.

It is clear that all this is the fight against windmills, but the deputies are determined. We cannot change everything in Russia, but we must do something as much as our strength.

Recorded by Alexei Slavin