Russia: Former Kremlin Loyalist Ilya Remeslo Arrested After His Turn Against Putin

Blogger Ilya Remeslo, a former Kremlin loyalist, was arrested and transferred from Saint Petersburg to Moscow for allegedly spreading false information about the Russian army. In March 2026, he published a manifesto titled 'Five Reasons Why I Stopped Supporting Vladimir Putin', calling the conflict in Ukraine a 'dead-end war'. He faces up to ten years in prison under the 2022 law targeting false information about the armed forces. Before his turnaround, he was a well-known figure in pro-Kremlin circles and sat on an advisory body.