No extremism was found in Gurulev’s call to “destroy 20% of Russians.”

The police and the prosecutor’s office did not find any signs of extremism in the statements of the deputy of the State Duma of Russia Andrey Gurulev. He said on TV that Russians who do not support the Kremlin’s policy must be “exterminated”. The request to verify this call for extremism was sent by the deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, Borys Vyshnevsky.

On October 15, during the program “Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov” on the state TV channel “Russia-1”, Gurulyov said that the level of support for the President of Russia Vladimir Putin in society is about 80%. Regarding the part of Russians who do not trust the president, Gurulyov said: “All this rot that has remained, it should be, if not isolated, then at least somehow destroyed.”

Such an emotional reaction from a member of the State Duma was triggered by a study by the state VTCIOM, according to which 18% of the country’s population, or a little less than 30 million people, do not trust Putin, Sibir.Realii notes.

Gurulev’s statement was previously considered by the State Duma Commission on Deputy Ethics. The chairman of the commission, Valentina Tereshkova, called the call to destroy dissenters “a figure of speech” and “a figurative expression that is not an insult and serves to clarify the speaker’s thoughts.”

• Andrey Gurulyov is a former deputy commander of the troops of the Southern Military District. Previously, he had repeatedly made sharp statements on the subject of the war in Ukraine, which were sometimes criticized by higher-ups. In particular, after Gurulyov published the appeal of the dismissed general Popov, the head of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, summoned him for a conversation. As “Novaya Gazeta” notes, in the record of the deputy there is also a close connection with PMC “Wagner”.