A Russian MP has demanded that Vladimir Putin deliver a plan to end the war in Ukraine as he berated the Kremlin’s “ineffective leadership”.

In a lengthy tirade, Vyacheslav Markhayev listed corruption scandals, oligarchy, losses of the “most active and reproductively capable segment of the population” and Ukrainian drone strikes among the ills plaguing wartime Russia.

“The time of illusions is over. The country is on the brink of a social explosion, and the blame for this will fall squarely on the entrenched ruling power,” said Mr Markhayev, a deputy of the State Duma from the Communist Party.

“If the situation persists, social unrest and chaos will become more likely. The West will inevitably exploit this to destroy the remnants of Russian statehood.”

The deputy joins a growing list of public figures who have broken from the official line to voice criticism of the authorities.

Late last month, Renat Suleymanov, a State Duma deputy from the same party, called for the “earliest possible end” to the war, saying the economy could not “withstand” its continuation.

In March, Ilya Remeslo, formerly a staunch Kremlin loyalist, turned against Putin, branding the Russian president “a war criminal and a thief”, and calling for him to be put on trial.

Discontent with the authorities has simmered in the past few months, linked to sweeping internet outages, sluggish progress on the battlefield and long-range Ukrainian strikes that have penetrated the heart of Russia’s two biggest cities.

This week, it was reported that the state-controlled Russian Public Opinion Research Centre would stop publishing Putin’s “open” trust rating as it plummeted to the lowest level since the start of the invasion.

Only 29.5 per cent of Russians named their president as one of the politicians they trusted in early April, before the survey was mysteriously discontinued.

Concerns about the resilience of the economy have also spurred a backlash. Growth has slowed to a crawl, inflation remains elevated and Ukrainian attacks on refineries and terminals have bitten a chunk out of Moscow’s oil-driven budget, sending crude processing to a 16-year low.

Meanwhile, high defence expenditure, which has reached post-Cold War heights, has triggered increasing alarm in Russia’s finance ministry.

Military spending increased by more than 30 per cent in early 2026 compared with the year before, reaching 46 per cent of total budget spending, according to Dr Janis Kluge, an economist and senior associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

This means almost every second rouble spent from the federal budget was allocated to the military.

“The pace of military spending looks even more impressive – and, from the Kremlin’s perspective, concerning – when compared with budget revenues… military spending was equivalent to two-thirds of Russian budget revenues in January to March 2026,” said Dr Kluge.

The flagship international economic forum in St Petersburg last week, which was the scene of two mass Ukrainian drone strikes on its opening and closing days, was meant to showcase Russia’s economic resilience.

Instead, it has only deepened concerns. One topic of discussion was the absence of Elvira Nabiullina, the governor of the central bank, usually a fixture at the event.

The Kremlin claimed she was on sick leave, but rumours have swirled about the protracted absence of Putin’s top economist.

This week, she and her deputies also skipped an interest rates meeting with the Russian president and his senior ministers.

Russian independent channels, citing sources close to the government, have claimed that Ms Nabiullina has handed Putin an ultimatum that she will only serve out her term on the condition that he does not escalate the war with border closures and martial law.

Another source told the Mozhem Obyasnit channel that she was planning to leave the central bank imminently, which would amount to a significant upset.

The governor, who is highly regarded as a policymaker and has worked with Putin for almost two decades, is believed to have long harboured private reservations about the invasion, and is said to have attempted to resign at its outset. 

At that time, she was ordered to remain in her post, according to sources close to the Kremlin.

Putin has not wavered from his course despite growing domestic unrest. On Friday, he signed an executive decree to expand the official staffing size of the Russian army by almost 10,000 staff, the second time within four months that he has been forced to enlarge the pool.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has demanded an extra $20bn (£14.9bn) from allies to consolidate its sudden battlefield advantage over Moscow’s forces, according to a report in Politico on Thursday.

“Everyone sees that Russia is burning, and we want it to burn even more, but we need financing to do it,” an unnamed official told the outlet, adding that the request would be made on June 18 at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group.