Putin critic Ilya Remeslo detained in Russia over army claims
Russian state media said the former pro-Kremlin blogger faces a false-information charge as Boris Nadezhdin was fined in a separate case.
By Frankie Delgado · News Reporter
3 min read
A former pro-Kremlin blogger who publicly turned against Vladimir Putin has been detained in St. Petersburg and accused of spreading false information about Russia’s armed forces, Russian state media reported Friday.
Ilya Remeslo, 42, could face up to 10 years in prison, the state news agency Tass reported, citing law enforcement sources. His lawyer, Sergey Badashmin, told Tass that Remeslo would be taken to Moscow for a hearing to decide pretrial restrictions.
It was not clear from the report whether Remeslo disputes the allegation. The false-information charge has been widely used against critics of Russia’s war in Ukraine since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Remeslo had spent years as a pro-Kremlin activist and was known as a sharp critic of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. NBC News reported that he had even testified against Navalny in court.
His public break with Putin came in March, when he posted a lengthy Telegram essay titled “Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin.” In it, according to NBC News, Remeslo accused the Russian president of being “a war criminal and thief,” among other attacks.
The next day, Remeslo was placed in a psychiatric hospital in circumstances that remained unclear, NBC News reported. After several weeks, he was released and resumed posting criticism of Putin on social media. In a later interview, he described the hospitalization as “the price” of his remarks about Putin, according to NBC News.
Another Putin critic in court
Remeslo’s detention came as a separate court hearing was held in the Moscow region for Boris Nadezhdin, an opposition politician and former presidential hopeful who tried to challenge Putin in 2024.
Nadezhdin, 63, was blocked from running in that election. NBC News reported that he was also declared a “foreign agent” last week, a label frequently used by Russian authorities against Kremlin opponents.
In the latest case, Nadezhdin was accused of displaying “extremist symbols” over a 2023 Telegram post that linked to a YouTube stream where an image of Navalny appeared. Russian authorities have designated Navalny and his Anti-Corruption Foundation as extremist and banned.
Nadezhdin denied the charge. The court fined him 1,000 rubles, about $12, and released him, a lighter outcome than some supporters had feared.
Speaking in court Friday, Nadezhdin said the case was meant to “shut me up and not let me run in parliamentary elections,” according to NBC News.
The foreign agent designation prevents Nadezhdin from standing in parliamentary elections scheduled for September, which NBC News said are being watched for signs of public discontent in Russia.
During his short-lived 2024 presidential bid, Nadezhdin drew long lines of people seeking to support his candidacy with their signatures. NBC News reported that the show of support irritated the Kremlin, which seeks to project broad public backing for Putin.
Before Friday’s hearing, Nadezhdin said he did not rule out leaving Russia for his family’s sake. He later said he had received official notice that he was barred from leaving the country and planned to appeal, according to NBC News.
This story draws on original reporting from NBC News.