‘The whole world looks at us as if we’re insane,’ Sergei Medvedev says.

Sergei Medvedev, a local council member in the Russian city of Perm, has fled to neighboring Georgia after backlash and anonymous threats following an online post in which he criticized President Vladimir Putin as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In a post he shared on the Russian social media network Vkontakte on December 31, Medvedev said: “Russia, wake up! They’re killing you! It’s horrible to realize that the monster who’s behind this is running for election again.”

He added: “I want the war to end! I want to see Russia free from Putin’s shackles.”

The post resulted in his expulsion from the Communist party last week after the Perm city council and law enforcement agencies requested that the party “give a legal assessment” of Medvedev’s social media posts criticizing the war.