I don't think it is a good idea to use the war as excuse to skip a democratic voting process within the ENOG board. If ENOG has been "dead" since 2014 (as was claimed in the thread), there's no reason the termination could not wait another couple months.
Additionally, his statement may be true if the Russian government would have reason to mess with the group, but the way he put it is likely to exacerbate xenophobia against Russian citizens. Imagine if Americans had to step down because of the Iraq war. It would be best to step down without saying that if that's how he feels (or be more explicit in an anti-war stance).
Furthermore, he can't necessarily be explicit in an anti-war stance, because it is illegal for Russians to acknowledge that the war even exists. Russia went hard on censorship relating to their invasion of Ukraine.
And there's no particular reason why Russia wouldn't want control over NOGs - the Internet is a war-fighting domain, and denying it to your enemy is a meaningful victory.