A Russian politician asked prosecutors to investigate president Vladimir Putin for using the word "war" to describe Moscow's “special military operation” in Ukraine, accusing the Russian president of breaking his own law, news agency Reuters reported.
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Vladimir Putin has been describing his invasion as a "special military operation", signing laws in March that put steep fines and jail terms on anyone discrediting or spreading "deliberately false information" about the Russian army. But Vladimir Putin departed from his usual language on Thursday when he told reporters, "Our goal is not to spin the flywheel of military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war."
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Nikita Yuferev, an opposition councillor in St Petersburg, said that he knew that the legal challenge would not result in any action but he had filed it to expose the "mendacity" of the system.
{{/usCountry}}Nikita Yuferev, an opposition councillor in St Petersburg, said that he knew that the legal challenge would not result in any action but he had filed it to expose the "mendacity" of the system.
{{/usCountry}}"It's important for me to do this to draw attention to the contradiction and the injustice of these laws that he (Putin) adopts and signs but which he himself doesn't observe," Nikita Yuferev told Reuters.
“I think the more we talk about this, the more people will doubt his honesty, his infallibility, and the less support he will have,” Nikita Yuferev added.
In his challenge, Nikita Yuferev asked the prosecutor general and interior minister to "hold (Putin) responsible under the law for spreading fake news about the actions of the Russian army".
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Nikita Yuferev said he had previously drawn authorities' attention to the use of the word "war" by other prominent figures including Sergei Kiriyenko, deputy head of the presidential administration, and leading lawmaker Sergei Mironov.
"War, in Russian society, is a frightening word. Everyone is brought up by grandparents who lived through World War Two, everyone remembers the saying 'Anything but war'," he said.
Earlier, opposition politician Ilya Yashin was jailed for 8-1/2 years for spreading "false information" about the Russian army. In July another local councillor, Alexei Gorinov, was sentenced to seven years for criticising the invasion.