(Photo credit should read ALEXEY NIKOLSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
The Kremlin has been icing out Russian politicians who have criticized the course of the war in Ukraine in recent days, blocking state media from quoting them even as Russian losses stack up, according to Russian news outlet Verstka.
The Kremlin has zeroed in on silencing a group of State Duma deputies who have been critical of the war and Russia’s military in recent months, according to Verstka, which cites a source close to the lower house and a source familiar at a media operation that received the instructions.
The list, which the first deputy head of the presidential administration Sergei Kiriyenko reportedly made, includes the head of the Duma’s Defense Committee, Andrei Kartopolov, who last month called for the Kremlin to “stop lying” to the Russian people about the casualties Moscow has sustained in the war.