• Local leaders are speaking out against President Vladimir Putin.
• Russia’s military setbacks in its conflict with Ukraine.
• It is igniting fresh resistance to him.

According to two local leaders who are speaking out against President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s military setbacks in its conflict with Ukraine are igniting fresh resistance to him.

The failure to achieve an immediate triumph, the failure to capture Kyiv, and now the effective counteroffensives by Ukraine while Russia has suffered such heavy losses in personnel and material have sparked resentment and discontent that Putin’s adversaries are attempting to capitalize on.

“There comes a moment where liberal groups and pro-war organizations can share the same objective. Putin’s resignation could be the end goal, according to Dmitry Palyuga, a local legislator from Putin’s homeland of St. Petersburg who demanded the president be removed from office.

Palyuga told CNN that while liberals like him had opposed the invasion of Ukraine for ethical and legal reasons, he now saw a chance to win over more people.

We intended to target certain individuals who had previously backed Putin and who now felt deceived, he claimed.

“The Russian army is currently being annihilated. So, if we lose people, weapons, or both, we’ll also lose the ability to defend ourselves. Even Russian propaganda is unable to conceal the fact that the Russian army is losing in Ukraine.

In Putin’s Russia, it can be difficult to criticize the Kremlin.

Opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who has been one of his loudest critics, was first poisoned and then imprisoned. Boris Nemtsov, a different political rival, was shot in the back by as-yet-unidentified hitmen. Vladimir Kara-Murza, a writer and politician, is incarcerated after speaking out against the invasion of

Ukraine. He is a victim of the Kremlin’s growing control over free speech following the start of what it terms a “special military operation” rather than a war.

Palyuga claimed that Putin’s most recent detractors are taking great care to adhere to the text of the law.

Ksenia Thorstrom, a local councilor or municipal representative in St. Petersburg, agreed with that strategy.

Making this public declaration is one of the things that a municipal deputy can do, she told CNN. “We don’t really have the authority or power to do anything since the “Yedinaya Rossiya” [Putin’s United Russia party] is strongly opposed to us even locally. They are against us, even on modest efforts like bicycle lanes, for instance.

“I’ve never had any of my proposals accepted. However, I am capable of making public declarations, which is what I did.
Some responses surprised us.

Thorstrom is aware from personal experience that Putin continues to enjoy a sizable following. She claimed that her own mother, who lives in “some parallel universe where Putin is making Russia great again,” accepts Kremlin propaganda.

She described her mother as believing in Nazis in Ukraine. She has the opinion that the West wants to hurt Russia in order to gain access to Russian resources and prevent Russia from becoming powerful.

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