A former loyalist blogger who became a staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin was arrested and accused of spreading false information about the armed forces, state media reported Friday.
The news came just as a court hearing was held against another Kremlin critic and opposition politician, Boris Nadezhdine, in a sign of an intensified response to the rise in internal dissension over the war in Ukraine and its impact on Russian life.
Blogger Ilya Remeslo stunned many people in Russia by publishing an article scathing manifesto against Russian leader which went viral in March.
He was arrested Friday morning in St. Petersburg and faces up to 10 years in prison, the official Tass news agency reported, citing police sources.
The accusation against him is common among opponents of the war in Ukraine and has been used to imprison many dissidents since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022.
Remeslo will be brought to Moscow for a hearing to determine a pre-trial restriction, his lawyer, Sergey Badashmin, told Tass. It was unclear whether Remeslo disputed the accusation.
After years of pro-Kremlin activism, Remeslo published a lengthy article on Telegram, titled “Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin.”
Remeslo, previously known as a vocal critic of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny who even testified against him in court, accused Putin of being “a war criminal and a thief” among a litany of critics.
The day after his trial, Remeslo, 42, found himself in a psychiatric hospital under unclear circumstances.
He was released from hospitalization after several weeks and continued to criticize the Russian leader on his social networks with the same zeal. He gave a extended maintenance after the episode, saying hospitalization was “the price” for his comments about Putin.
As news of Remeslo’s detention spread on Friday, a court hearing was held in the Moscow region for opponent and former presidential candidate Boris Nadezhdin.
He was ban on challenging Putin in 2024 and was said a foreign agent last weeka term that the Kremlin often uses to discredit its opponents.
Nadezhdin, 63, was accused of displaying “extremist symbols” from a 2023 post on his Telegram channel, with a link to a YouTube feed that displayed a photo of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Russian authorities have designated Navalny and his Anti-Corruption Foundation as extremists and banned. Nadejdin denies this accusation.
In what turned out to be a more lenient decision than some feared, the court fined Nadezhdin 1,000 rubles ($12) and released him.
The foreign agent designation prevents Nadejdin from running in next September’s legislative elections, which are being closely watched for signs of public discontent.
In his speech in court on Friday, Nadezhdin said the aim of his trial was to “silence me and not let me run in the parliamentary elections”.
When Nadezhdin attempted to run against Putin in 2024, long lines of supporters waited to support his candidacy with their signatures. That has angered the Kremlin, which is working to create a perception of full support for Putin among voters.
Before his trial, Nadezhdin said he did not rule out leaving the country for the sake of his family, something many opponents of the Kremlin have been forced to do. But he then announced he had received an official notice banning him from leaving Russia, and he was considering an appeal.
