MOSCOW: According to a deputation, a group of St Petersburg local politicians on Tuesday called for the sacking of President Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine conflict as a result of a judge's decision, facing the dissolution of his district council.

According to Nikita Yuferev, the judge ruled that a series of previous council meetings were invalid, prompting the regional governor to dissolve it.

Another council member, Dmitry Palyuga, said the same court later fined him 47,000 rubles (US$780) for "discrediting" the authorities by calling for Putin's removal. Court officials could not be reached for comment over phone.

Four more members of the Smolninskoye local council are due to appear in court in the next two days.

Last week, a group of council representatives asked the State Duma to accuse Putin of treason and depose him, citing a number of reasons, including Russia's military losses in Ukraine and the economic damage caused by Western sanctions.

Another local deputy said 65 municipal representatives from St Petersburg, Moscow and other regions had signed a petition calling for Putin's resignation, which he published on Monday.

While the moves pose no immediate threat to Putin's power, they are a rare expression of discontent by elected officials at a time when Russians have been harshly accused of "discrediting" the armed forces or spreading "deliberately misinformation" about them. face a prison sentence.

Ahead of Tuesday's hearing, Paluga said the group's appeal was aimed not only at liberal Russians, but "those loyal to officers who are beginning to doubt the Russian military's lack of success."

He predicted such numbers would rise after Ukraine's lightning retaliation last week, in which it drove Russian forces from dozens of cities and reclaimed a large area in its northeastern Kharkiv region.

"Of course, what's going on right now coincides successfully with our agenda." Many of Putin's supporters are beginning to feel cheated. "I believe that the more successful the Ukrainian army, the more such people will be there," he said.

The greater risk for the Kremlin, according to Russian political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya, was not the opposition of the councilors themselves, but the risk of reacting too harshly to it.

"Reaction, or over-reaction, may do more political damage to the regime than this petition." “However, I have no doubt that everyone who signs the petition will face political pressure,” said Stanovaya, founder of the independent research project R.Politic.

Thousands of legal cases have been filed against people accused of defaming the military, most of which have been fines for first-time crimes, but in July a Moscow district councilor was sentenced to seven years for spreading false information. Was sentenced to prison. Several other journalists and opposition figures have also been charged and faced prison sentences.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that the important points are tolerated within the limits of the law. "As long as they live within the law, it is pluralism," he said, "but the line is very, very thin, and one must be very careful here."

St Petersburg local councilor Ksenia Thorström launched a petition demanding Putin's resignation on Monday, saying it was too early to predict how the campaign would go.

"It is completely normal to demand the resignation of a politician." "There is nothing criminal in this," she explained. "Of course, there is some risk, but it is far more important to show solidarity with our allies - free politicians who live in Russia."

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