Former liberal politician Boris Nadezhdin said on the air of Gazprom-owned NTV channel that President Vladimir Putin should be replaced at the next election, Newsweek reports.

During the discussion, Nadezhdin, who opposed Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, said that under the current political regime in Russia, “we have no possibility of returning to Europe.”

“We just need to choose another government that will end this story with Ukraine and build normal relations with European countries,” he said on the air of one of the three main state channels, NTV.

One of the presenters, Ivan Truskin, tried to interrupt him. “I expected you to say all that, word for word,” adding that his views were “boring.”

Undeterred, Nadezhdin declared that there would be presidential elections in Russia in 2024 and that “we should elect someone else, not Putin.” Then everything will be fine.”

The clip was published on Twitter by Anton Gerashchenko, the adviser to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, who wrote: “For the first time on Russian TV, propagandists said that Putin and the country’s leadership should resign and elect others.”

Although it is not clear that this is the state broadcaster’s first call for Putin to leave power, and criticism of the Kremlin is rare, Nadezhdin is a regular guest on the program and his position on the war would be well known. manufacturers

In fact, Boris Nadezhdin said in September 2022 that Putin had been misled by advisers into believing that Ukraine would quickly surrender, and called for peace talks to quickly end the conflict, Newsweek reported.

Russian officials demanded that Putin be indicted

Deputies of the Smolninsky municipality in St. Petersburg last year appealed to the State Duma of the Russian Federation with a motion to impeach Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to the document, in the war started by Vladimir Putin on February 24, “capable parts” of the Russian army are being destroyed, “capable youth, citizens of Russia” are being killed, the country’s economy is suffering, the length of Russia’s border with NATO countries is doubling, and Ukraine is getting new weapons, albeit one the “demilitarization” of the country was one of the goals of the “special military operation”.

The document also states that the Russian president’s decision to launch a “military special operation harms the security of Russia and its citizens.”

“In this regard, we ask you, as deputies of the State Duma, to make a proposal to charge the President of the Russian Federation with treason with the aim of removing him from office,” the appeal reads.