A council in Vladimir Putin's hometown have demanded that he be indicted for treason and removed from power.
Smolninskoye council members made the extraordinary appeal to the Russian parliament, claiming Putin's conflict with Ukraine was making Russia's situation unbearable.
“Young able-bodied citizens are dying and being maimed,” they warned.
Due to the Ukraine war the Russian economy is suffering, NATO is expanding, and Ukraine is acquiring new modern equipment due to Putin’s rash policies, they said.
“We have listed the reasons why we believe that this is high treason,” said one of the councillors in the municipal authority, Nikita Yuferev, 34.
Russians who fear the Western defence alliance should understand that “as a result of Putin's actions, the land border between Russia and NATO has doubled.”
Putin’s war "harms the security of Russia and its citizens”, said Dmitry Palyuga, 35, who backed the accusations of treason.
There are fears Russia is increasingly becoming more unsafe, forcing bright young people to flee the country.
"One of the Russian president's declared goals is to demilitarise Ukraine, and we see exactly the opposite happening,” Palyuga told The Insider.
“Not that we fully support the goals declared by President Putin, but simply within his own rhetoric he is damaging the security of the Russian Federation.
“We want to show people that there are [democratic representatives] who don't agree with the current course and think Putin is harming Russia.
“We want to show people that we are not afraid to talk about it."
The local politicians understand their demand has no hope of success in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament which Putin’s stooges control.
Despite this they have gone ahead with the demand.
“It is very important to show that there are people who do not agree [with the war],” said Yuferev.
“We are in Russia, and there are quite a significant number of us,” he said.
It is a rare case of open opposition to the war from within the country - known in Russia as a special military operation.
For the most part, the nascent democracy that grew after the collapse of communism has been snuffed out by Putin.
Smolninskoye is a small area within Putin's home city of St. Petersburg.
When asked if the councillors are afraid of the consequences, Yuferev said that there had been attempts to dismiss Smolninskoye council for two years, but “it's not working out very well”.
A council was too small for Putin to bother with, he claimed.
An earlier request in March was ignored.
In August Yuferev personally wrote to the presidential administration and was told: “Your proposal has been considered.
“We inform you that a special military operation on demilitarisation and deNazification is being carried out [in Ukraine].”
Others behind the move include Radislav Poluykov and Dmitry Baltrukov.
The treason demand against Putin was pushed through by ten councillors who attended out of 20, enough for a quorum.
The voting was seven for with three abstentions.
Putin was born in St Petersburg - then known as Leningrad - 70 years ago next month.
