Deputy Zatulin can be punished for his statements about the war in Ukraine

State Duma deputy Konstantin Zatulin may be removed from a number of Duma posts and expelled from the “United Russia” faction for his statements about the war in Ukraine, in which he thought about achieving the goals of the so-called special military operation. “Vedomosti” writes about this with reference to sources.

It is confirmed that consultations have begun in “United Russia” after the statements made on June 1. Among the options discussed are Zatulyna’s removal from the post of first deputy chairman of the State Duma committee and his expulsion from the ranks of the faction. Zatulin is not in danger of losing his mandate, he is not a member of “United Russia” and was elected from a single-mandate district.

Zatulin made statements that were widely circulated on social networks and Telegram channels at the “What kind of Ukraine do we need?” forum. Among other things, he noted that none of the four goals of the so-called special operation – the full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24, 2022 – has been achieved. “What were the goals we officially declared at the beginning of the military operation? You remember everything – de-Nazification, demilitarization, neutrality of Ukraine and the protection of the residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics… On which of these points have we achieved results today? One by one Moreover, some of them have ceased to make any sense,” the deputy said, in particular.

In his opinion, in particular, the demand for Ukraine’s neutrality, which cannot be achieved if the Ukrainian state continues to exist, has ceased to make sense. And it – assured Zatulin – will remain, because “there is not enough strength to overcome it, with the support that is given to them.”

According to Zatulin, the plan that the Russian authorities had at the beginning of the war obviously failed. In his opinion, the plan consisted in the fact that “rather quickly after our military action, the Ukrainian state collapses, and without special sacrifices it is possible to achieve what was not achieved during the eight years when the Minsk agreements were tried to be implemented.” “I don’t want to settle scores now with the people who formulated it in this way, but in any case it is obvious to everyone that it did not happen,” Zatulin said.

Zatulin also noted that Russia is not capable of fulfilling even its own decision to annex four Ukrainian regions: “We never entered the city of Zaporozhye, but we left the city of Kherson.”

Similar opinions are sometimes expressed even by publicists generally loyal to the Russian authorities, but they rarely come from the mouths of acting members of the State Duma. Earlier, Zatulin had already drawn attention to himself, declaring that the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions are disputed territories (Russian legislation requires that they be called territories of Russia. The annexation is not recognized by the international community, and part of these territories are under the control of Ukraine).

On Monday, Zatulin told the Govorit Moscow radio station that he knew nothing about the conflict and suggested that his words could have been taken out of context. At the same time, he confirmed that he was talking about the fact that the goals of “SVO” have not been achieved at the moment.

• Konstantin Zatulin – one of the most experienced Russian politicians, was a deputy of the State Duma of the first convocation. Already at that time, he adhered to nationalist and revisionist views, disputed the territorial affiliation of Crimea and Sevastopol. Due to foreign policy disagreements with the Russian leadership – then on the issue of Libya – in 2011 he already remained in the post of deputy chairman of the State Duma committee, was not elected to the Duma of the sixth convocation, but since 2016 he has been sitting in the parliament again.