Pro-Kremlin blogger called Putin a war criminal and ended…

Pro-Kremlin blogger called Putin a war criminal and ended up in a psychiatric ward — a crack in Russian propaganda

19.03.2026 17:00 HotInfo

Ilya Remeslo, a 42-year-old St. Petersburg lawyer and one of the most well-known pro-Kremlin bloggers with ninety thousand followers on Telegram, published a manifesto on Tuesday evening titled "Five Reasons Why I Stopped Supporting Vladimir Putin." In the text, he accused the Russian president of sending Russians to their deaths in a "hopeless war" against Ukraine, destroying the economy, eroding living standards, tightening control over the internet and media, and tolerating corruption. He concluded the manifesto with the words: "Vladimir Putin is not a legitimate president. Vladimir Putin must resign and be put on trial as a war criminal and a thief." The Moscow Times ↗ Bloomberg ↗

Remeslo spent years building a reputation as a reliable voice of the Kremlin. As a lawyer, he filed criminal complaints against opposition activists and was directly involved in court proceedings against the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. His turnaround is therefore extremely shocking — he is not an opposition figure, but a man from the inner circle of Kremlin propaganda. On Wednesday morning, he even gave an interview to the exile outlet Agentstvo, in which he intensified his criticism, declaring: "They can't possibly lock up everyone for criticizing Putin." The Moscow Times ↗

Within hours of the manifesto's publication, Remeslo was hospitalized at Psychiatric Hospital No. 3 in St. Petersburg. This was reported by the St. Petersburg daily Fontanka. The circumstances of the hospitalization are unclear — it is not known whether it was a voluntary stay or forced detention. The use of psychiatry against dissidents is a notorious practice in Russia with roots in the Soviet era, when the regime systematically locked up political opponents in so-called "psikhushkas." South China Morning Post ↗ Gamereactor ↗

Reactions from the pro-Kremlin camp were confused. Propagandist Vladimir Solovyov suggested that Remeslo "had gone mad" or "switched sides." Chechen commander Apti Alaudinov speculated that the blogger had been "kidnapped" or was being held against his will. From the opposition camp, Leonid Volkov, an associate of Navalny, called the case "the fastest about-face I have ever seen" and noted that Remeslo had crossed the Kremlin's "red lines." The Moscow Times ↗

Polish media picked up the case immediately. The portal O2.pl ran the headline: "He was Putin's man. Now he calls him a criminal." TVN24 wrote about "internal fractures within the Kremlin," and analysts from the Polish agency PAP noted that Remeslo's case could signal deeper cracks in the Russian propaganda machine. Bloomberg stated in its analysis that "a Kremlin loyalist turned against Putin as Russians are starting to grow tired of the war" — suggesting that Remeslo's manifesto may reflect the mood of a broader segment of Russian society that is afraid to speak out loud. O2.pl ↗ TVN24 ↗ Bloomberg ↗