Local Russian lawmakers called for Putin's removal from power over the war in Ukraine, and then the police went after them

Dissent can lead to imprisonment or worse in a country where the president can be removed from power.

The Washington Post reports that a group of municipal deputies in St. Pete called on Russia's parliament to remove Putin from power and charge him with high treason.

"We believe that the decision made by President Putin to start the special military operation is detrimental to the security of Russia and its citizens," the document stated.

The majority of the Council of the Smolninskoye Municipal District supported the proposal to charge President Putin with treason, according to the document.

According to the Post, the police told the lawmakers that they are facing legal charges because of the actions they've taken.

Lawmakers from a Moscow council called on Putin to step down.

"The rhetoric you and your subordinates have used for a long time is infused with intolerance and aggression, which in the end has effectively sent our country back into the Cold War era," the local Moscow lawmakers said in a statement.

They said that Russia is once again threatening the world with nuclear weapons. Since your views and model of government are outdated, we ask you to resign from your post.

Putin signed a law prohibiting the spread of fake news about the Russian military after ordering the invasion of Ukraine. If they are found guilty, they could be sentenced to up to fifteen years in prison. The move was decried by rights groups and activists as an attempt to stifle free speech.

Critics of Putin have been killed in violent ways.

In August 2020, Navalny was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok, but he survived. Less than a year later, Navalny was sentenced to prison on charges widely condemned as politically motivated.

Despite the recent calls from some local lawmakers, it is highly unlikely that Russia's rubber-stamp parliament would remove Putin.

Nikita Yuferev told the Post that they understood that Putin would not stop the operation.

Yuferev said that the requests were written for people who are still in Russia and for whom the propaganda tries to assure that they are the minority.

The Russian military has suffered a lot of losses in Ukraine.

According to the Pentagon, there are as many as 80,000 Russian casualties inUkraine. Russia's economy has been crippled by sanctions while the West moves to ostracize Moscow. Russia's military has been accused of war crimes and other atrocities after it invaded Ukraine.