“I was very surprised to see my signature on the message,” said Kochugova. “I haven’t signed this statement or even read it. Therefore, I was very surprised when my name was heard in connection with this statement of my comrades.”
“The action defames the Russian Army and our defenders who are fighting against Nazism. You are a traitor,” Kozhemyako said, pertaining to Vasyukevich.
Condemned by Their Own
Leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) in the Primorsky Legislative Assembly, Anatoly Dolgachev, did not bother to intervene to help Vasyukevich and Shulga. Instead, Dolgachev condemned his colleagues’ actions and vowed strict punishment against the defectors.
“I think we will give a political assessment of your actions. And especially to those who are members of the party, we will take the toughest measures. You discredit the honor of the CPRF with such statements,” Dolgachev said.
The CPRF faction is notorious for supporting the self-proclaimed separatist states in Ukraine’s Donbas region. It was the Russian Communist Party that called on Putin and the Kremlin to recognize the independence of the offshoot republics earlier this year.
Putin’s “special military operation” came shortly after the Russian president recognized the independence of the separatists Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, two so-called republics that have not been recognized by the international community. These so-called republics have been an integral part of the Kremlin’s narrative to justify its invasion of Ukraine.
Sowing Dissent
Vasyukevich and Shulga were not the first Russian politicians to publicly express their opposition to the war in Ukraine.
In the early days of the Russo-Ukrainian war, the leader of the communist factions in the Komi State Council in Russia, Viktor Vorobyov, denounced the war, saying that “there is no justification for what is happening in Ukraine in international law.”
War opposition leader and local council member in Moscow, Yelena Kotenochkina tried to set up a petition in March calling for an end to the unjust invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin responded to the petition by sending it to criminal investigators to go after Kotenochkina. Later that same month, a member of the CPRF Nina Belyayeva publicly denounced the invasion in a city council meeting held in Russia’s Voronezh region.
Dissent among Russian politicians has been growing as the war in Ukraine drags on its fourth month. Opposition against the invasion has now reached even the highest echelons of the Russian ruling class.
Speculation that Putin is slowly losing his control over the Kremlin because of his deteriorating health has become more common in recent weeks. So much so that recent insider reports claim that Putin’s own inner circle has been discussing in private possible replacements for the Russian president.
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