Natalia Poklonskaya was dismissed from her government role by the Kremlin on Monday, just weeks after she became one of the few Russian officials to criticize the Russian government's war policy.
Natalia Poklonskaya appeared at the State Duma.
Poklonskaya shared in a Telegram post that she was ousted as the deputy head of Russia's Rossotrudnichestvo foreign outreach agency after just four months in the job.
Poklonskaya said her departure is so she can take on a new job, and there is no reason listed in the decree for her dismissal, but the timing is likely related to her comments on the invasion.
In April, the Ukrainian-born Poklonskaya called the war a catastrophe and decried the tragedy of the invasion in a video that has more than 300,000 views.
The Rossotrudnichestvo chief spoke out in defense of the letter after Poklonskaya spoke out against it.
According to the Moscow Times, Poklonskaya said in April that people are dying and houses are destroyed. The bodies and souls are cut up. I am in pain. I don't want my native countries to kill each other, that's not what I want.
The lead prosecutor for the region was once an official in the Ukrainian government. She worked for the Rossotrudnichestvo before she became the country's ambassador to Cape Verde. Russia has made it a crime to criticize the war in Ukraine and could lead to up to 15 years in prison. Few government employees have dared to speak out, though a state-run television employee protested the invasion on-air in March and a small group of legislators called for Putin to end the invasion last month.
Poklonskaya's prominence in the international coverage of the annexation of the Crimean peninsula made her an unlikely sensation. She has a Telegram profile picture with a Russian flag.
Russia's pro-war symbol is Slammed by an ex-Crimea prosecutor.
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