Smolny Court allows dissolution of council of St. Petersburg lawmakers, who call to recognize Putin as traitor

This was reported by Mediazona with reference to the twitter of deputy Nikita Yuferev.

"The municipal council of Smolny can be dissolved! The judge of the Smolny district court Bondar, based on a lawsuit by the prosecutor's office, decided today that our council is not active. Now the governor of St. Petersburg will decide whether to drive us to hell or not. We will appeal this decision," the message says.

In Smolny, the candidates of the United Russia party won only four out of 20 seats, while the deputies could not elect the chairman of the council, as they did not have at least 14 out of 20 votes to sign the budget. Because of this, the previous head of United Russia Grigory Rankov, who lost the election, remained acting head and did not call a new meeting.

The Central District Prosecutor's Office filed a lawsuit to declare deputies 'inactive' in July 2021. Four months later, the case was closed and returned to it on September 7, 2022.

On this day, 10 deputies of Smolny sent an appeal to Russia's State Duma, in which they proposed to remove President Vladimir Putin from office "in connection with state treason".  The police drew up protocols for 'discrediting' the army against five deputies.

According to the legislation on local self-government, which has entered into force, the court's decision on the 'inaction' of the council of municipal deputies allows Governor Alexander Beglov to introduce a bill on the dissolution of the council to the legislative assembly of St. Petersburg.