Russia Risks Collapse Over Ukraine Debacle, Lawmaker Warns

Russian lawmaker Boris Nadezhdin was called a provocateur by other TV guests and the host after criticizing the country's leadership and warning of collapse.

Speaking on NTV station show Mesto Vstrechi on Monday, Nadezhdin also said the risk of the Russian Federation crumbling has increased since the war in Ukraine began.

The clip of Nadezhdin's comments have gone viral on social media since being posted on Monday. The clip has so far been viewed more than 110,000 times.

The video was shared by Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. He captioned the clip: "'The risks of Russian Federation dissolving increased greatly with the beginning of the special military operation.'

"Somehow I don't think we'll be seeing this guy on Russian TV again."

Gerashchenko also provided the English translation for the conversation on the show.

Nadezhdin said: "Unfortunately, the risks of the dissolution of the Russian Federation have increased rapidly with the start of this special operation.

"There are two reasons for this. The first is that the very ideological justification that there are Russians in Ukraine, that they are one people and therefore there should be Russia as a state.

"This very justification undermines the foundation of the statehood of the Russian Federation. Because then it is unclear why Tatars, Chechens etc. Live in Russia if Russia is everywhere where Russians are, that's one story."

One of the guests then calls Nadezhdin a provocateur. Undeterred, Nadezhdin continues to explain his point.

Then another guest interrupted to argue that his comments were not a provocation but instead an anti-state position.

Nadezhdin continued: "States do not collapse because some groups gather and state something. It's marginal enough. It's hard not to agree with that so far. Right?

"States collapse because of catastrophic mistakes of their own leadership. That is the real reason they collapse.

"When these catastrophic mistakes accumulate into a critical mass of irritation, then even marginal groups at first, can suddenly become very important.

Vladimir Putin also appears to be losing support for the continued conflict with Ukraine from the public.

A new internal poll, reportedly commissioned by the Kremlin shows support for war with Ukraine has dropped since the summer, according to Meduza, an independent Russian news site.

The poll was reportedly conducted by Russia's Federal Protection Service (FSO) on behalf of the Kremlin. Its results found that only 25 percent of Russians polled for the survey said they want the war to continue, down from 57 percent who said the same for internal polls conducted in July.

Details regarding when the study was conducted and how many people were polled were not included in Meduza's report.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.