He is one of the rebels, of those rare voices who, in Russia, dare to confront Vladimir Putin out loud, in a country where pronouncing the word “war” to qualify the Russian invasion in Ukraine is punishable by 15 years in prison. Dmitry Palyuga is 35 years old and has a good dose of courage. Elected independent in the district of Smolninskoye, in Saint Petersburg, he signed on September 7, with six other members of his local council, an official appeal to the Duma (the National Parliament) accusing Vladimir Putin of “high treason” and calling for his dismissal. At the very moment when, this Tuesday, September 13, the Smolninskoye court rules on his case, he delivers to L’Express his motivations, intact.
L’Express: What prompted you to launch this official appeal to the Duma?
Dmitry Palyuga : In our district of Smolninskoye, we made this call with six other colleagues of mine for the Duma to prosecute Vladimir Putin for high treason because of his military operation in Ukraine, because from now on the future of Russia and Russians is in danger. After our initiative, other local councils drafted a petition demanding Putin’s resignation. So far, some 35 members from different districts of Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities have signed it.
Did you sign it too?
I preferred not to, for a simple reason: since we launched our appeal to the Duma, we have been the subject of a lot of media attention, we are celebrities here. If I sign this petition, people will say to themselves: “Ah, it’s still this crazy local elected official who signed something crazy”… So I prefer that my name not appear in this initiative and that we see that other elected officials from other cities are also taking initiatives.
What are the legal elements that could cause Putin to be accused of high treason?
According to Russian law, an individual can be charged with high treason if they share secret information with foreign governments or threaten Russia’s security. We highlight four reasons why Putin’s attitude endangers Russia:
1/ He destroys the Russian army;
2/ It destroys the Russian economy;
3/ Putin has always argued that the eastward enlargement of NATO was the greatest danger for Russia. Personally, I do not agree with this idea, but it is an argument that he has been putting forward for a long time. And now, because of his actions, NATO will expand further to the East by integrating Sweden and Finland. I live in Saint Petersburg, we are 100 kilometers from Finland, I can say that I am now very close to NATO! It is this contradiction that we wanted to demonstrate to the Russians who still support Putin.
Dmitry Palyuga, local elected official in Saint Petersburg, has signed a call for the impeachment of Vladimir Putin for “high treason”
DR
4/ Finally, the fourth argument concerns the “demilitarization” of Ukraine, which was one of the main justifications for the “special military operation”. Again, I personally never believed in this objective. But it is clear that because of Putin’s actions and colossal Western military aid to kyiv, Ukraine is more militarized than ever!
Is this for you, as a Russian citizen, a reason for concern?
Frankly no, I’m not very worried about it. I do not believe that Ukraine will attack Russia, especially because our country has nuclear weapons.
What is the procedure in Russia for a potential impeachment? Do you believe it?
The legal procedure requires that a third of the deputies of the Duma launch an accusation against the president, then the Parliament and the State Court decide and according to their judgment, the head of state can be impeached. But honestly, as you probably know, the Russian Parliament is under Putin’s total control and I don’t imagine for a second that a third of the MPs would make such a decision.
In reality, our initiative aims above all to show the Russians opposed to this war that they are not alone. There are many people in Russia who are against this war, but they feel that most Russians support Putin; this is what the Russian media hammer all day long, trying to say that we, the opponents, are only a very small portion of society.
The fact is that it is very difficult to gauge public opinion in Russia…
And for good reason, Putin’s regime is based only on lies. We have fake elections, fake courts, fake “sociology”, fake media, so nobody knows where the truth is here.
But I can tell you that when we signed that appeal on September 7, I got a lot of support from people I didn’t know. They found me on social media and thanked me and offered to help. It’s really motivating, because out of the hundreds of messages I received, there were only two in which I was told I was going to hell, and other horrible things like that. Moreover, our appeal is now known in Russia.
Do you think that outside the big cities, Russians are aware of these initiatives?
We can clearly see, now, with the new petition launched by other municipal councillors, that this goes beyond Moscow and Saint Petersburg, there are signatories from cities very far from there, where there is also opposition. But it is true that in Russia, what happens in Moscow matters a lot, which is why it is important to have signatories in the capital. Russia is a huge country, and even when people protest in remote Siberian communes, it doesn’t affect Putin. We need actions in Moscow.
You say you want to show the anti-war Russians that they are not alone. For this, you take considerable risks. Are you afraid of the consequences?
Of course there are risks, but I’m not really afraid, because I’m not alone, there are six other members of my local council, who will also be tried in the next few days. If I had been alone, I would have been paralyzed, because accusing Putin of high treason is really “hardcore”. But there are seven of us, and if all seven of us are imprisoned, it will trigger a strong media reaction. And even if justice does – which is entirely possible – we will not be alone. This applies to other initiatives. When people see that there are already about thirty people who have signed the petition, it will encourage them to do so too…
The “special operation” in Ukraine began at the end of February. What made you decide to act today?
We were opposed to this “special operation” from the start, and we immediately sent a request to Putin to stop it. He never answered us. Then, we made several other individual appeals to Duma deputies, but also to Putin’s administration. But these actions have remained under the media radar.
With this appeal to the Duma, we have probably chosen the right time and the right way to express our disagreement. Furthermore, there are now, in addition to liberals like me who opposed the war from the start, non-liberals who are beginning to realize that something is wrong with this “operation”, that Russia is to lose this war and will suffer for years, and that the fastest way to end this war is to get rid of Putin. For the moment, they are not speaking out loud because they are terrified, and then they do not know if they should still cling to Putin, if he will still be able to stay in power, or if the time has come to betray him.
In recent months, anti-war Russians have left their country. Have you thought about it?
Yes, I thought about it, but I decided that I wanted to stay in Russia. I want to be in Russia, I love Russia, I love Russian culture, Russian language, and I only see my future in Russia. Of course it would be interesting to go and live somewhere else for a while, but I have a strong connection to Russia and I feel that it is in my country that I can do something, that I know what it takes to make people’s lives better.
What is the general atmosphere at the moment in St. Petersburg, where you live? Do the Russian military defeats in Ukraine in recent days change anything?
Overall, I think most people are just tired of this war, tired of living in constant fear. They want to be able to speak freely. Since the Ukrainian counteroffensive started, I think many Russians have been waiting for the Ukrainians to end this war as quickly as possible. It’s the only scenario that can happen quickly right now. Because Putin will not leave his throne in two weeks, or in the next two months. Whereas in the next two months we may witness a significant defeat of the Russian army.
Some have speculated about a palace revolution in Moscow, against Vladimir Putin, or even a popular revolt. What do you think ?
I don’t believe in it, at least not in the near future. Putin remains very strong, he has a lot of people under his boot, which makes a coup against him unlikely.