Pro-Kremlin blogger who published anti-Putin manifesto detained on ‘fake news’ charges

Russian blogger Ilya Remeslo was detained in St. Petersburg on Friday on charges of spreading “fake news” about the Russian army, state media and Remeslo's lawyer, Sergey Badamshin, reported.

“He's being taken to Moscow,” Badamshin wrote on Telegram, adding that investigators had also searched Remeslo's home. It is not yet clear what specific statements the case is based on. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Until March 2026, Remeslo was a reliably pro-Kremlin blogger who had worked for RT and built his reputation largely by attacking the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny. He later said that roughly 70% of his output had been devoted to Navalny, with the remainder aimed at other opposition figures, and that he received funding from the Presidential Administration for this work — on average, he said, 700,000 rubles (€7,800) a month.

On 17 March, Remeslo abruptly reversed course, publishing a manifesto on Telegram titled “Five Reasons Why I Stopped Supporting Vladimir Putin.” In it, he pointed to the war in Ukraine, the damage inflicted on Russia's economy, the “strangulation” of the internet and media freedom, the length of time Putin had held power, and what he called Putin's disregard for the concerns of ordinary voters. Within days, reports emerged that he had been placed in a psychiatric hospital.

Remeslo was released about a month later. He subsequently gave a lengthy interview to journalist Ksenia Sobchak, in which he elaborated on his past work and the funding he said he had received from the Presidential Administration. He explained that at some point he had simply “lost the desire” to keep working for the Kremlin.