City deputy Dmitry Baltrukov, who petitioned the Russian parliament to impeach President Vladimir Putin, was fined and called up to fight for the Russian army in Ukraine.
Last month he and other MPs from St. Petersburg’s Smolninskoe district filed a petition accusing Putin of “treason” and urging him to resign from the presidency.
According to MEPs, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ordered by the head of state, caused the death and maiming of thousands of soldiers and triggered an overwhelming crisis in the country’s economy.
Days later, Baltrukov and six other deputies were forced out of office and questioned by police about their antigovernment stance. In addition, they each received a fine of 44,000 rubles.
Last Sunday (2) Dmitry was surprised by police officers and military personnel who went to his mother’s house to deliver a subpoena for the congressman to appear in a military unit.
Dmitry’s callup is part of the “partial mobilization” announced by the Russian government in September, calling for more than 300,000 reservists to be deployed in Ukraine.
According to the government order, Dmitry should present himself at the local draft office this Monday (3), which has not happened so far. The parliamentarian with no military experience says he was a targeted target of the Russian government because of the positions taken against Putin.
“Having no military experience, I believe the real reason for the agenda is an attempt to get rid of me as a deputy,” Baltrukov said in an interview with Newsweek.
For the parliamentarian, “there is a big difference between Putin’s words and reality” and the partial mobilization of troops that called him “is a big mistake”.
* Intern at R7directed by Lucas Ferreira