Kremlin blogger arrested after posting “5 reasons why I no longer support Putin”

©picture alliance / TheKremlinMoscow-SvenSimon | The Kremlin Moscow

Russian blogger and former Kremlin loyalist Ilya Remeslo has been arrested on suspicion of spreading false information about the military, according to the Russian state news agency TASS, citing police sources.

According to Remeslo’s lawyer, the blogger is currently being transferred from St. Petersburg to Moscow for further prosecution. The authorities have not yet officially confirmed the charges, but according to TASS, they could result in a maximum prison sentence of ten years.

Criticism is not tolerated

The arrest comes a few months after a notable public break with the Kremlin. In March, Remeslo published a scathing manifesto in which he criticized President Vladimir Putin and described the war in Ukraine as a hopeless conflict that is costing Russians their lives. He also called for Putin to be tried as a war criminal. Shortly after those statements, Remeslo was admitted to a psychiatric facility in St. Petersburg. He later stated that the admission was not voluntary treatment but a form of retaliation because he refused to retract his criticism. The circumstances surrounding that admission have never been fully clarified.

He turned his back on Putin

Remeslo’s about-face caused quite a stir in Russia at the time. For years, he had been regarded as a staunch defender of the Kremlin. As a lawyer, he filed complaints against activists and opponents of the regime and played a prominent role in campaigns against the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Within the Russian pro-war movement—the so-called “Z-bloggers”—criticism of military policy is sometimes voiced, but a direct attack on Putin himself is rare. According to analysts, Remeslo broke one of the most persistent taboos in today’s Russia, precisely because he had been part of the pro-Kremlin camp for years. His case fits into a broader climate of increasing repression against criticism of the war and the Kremlin. That makes the arrest of a former ally all the more striking.

©picture alliance / TheKremlinMoscow-SvenSimon | The Kremlin Moscow