Ilia Remeslo, a figure known in the Russian online environment for his unconditional support of the regime in Moscow, was admitted to a psychiatric unit in St. Petersburg. The decision comes just two days after he published a viral manifesto calling for the resignation and trial of Vladimir Putin.
Ilia Remeslo, right. PHOTO X/@visionergeo
Remeslo built his career denouncing Kremlin critics, until he became one himself. On Tuesday night he surprised his 90,000 Telegram followers with a post titled “Five Reasons Why I Stopped Supporting Vladimir Putin”. In his message, he described the invasion of Ukraine as a “failed war” which resulted in the death of millions of people and destroyed the Russian economy. He stated that “absolute power corrupts” and that Putin has become “foreign to Russia's interests”.
“Vladimir Putin is not a legitimate president. Vladimir Putin must resign and be tried as a war criminal and a thief“, Remeslo also wrote in his post.
Thursday, the publication Fontanka reported that the blogger is currently at the Psychiatric Hospital no. 3 from St. Petersburg. Although the medical reasons for the admission were not specified, the facility's information office confirmed that a patient named Remeslo had already received packages from outside. Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels have already started distributing information aimed at destroying his credibility, claiming that the bloggerl “had become obsessed with Scandinavian mysticism and runes” in the last period.
Vladimir Solovyov, the Kremlin's chief propagandist, suggested that Remeslo “he gave in nervously” or was “bought”. Apti Alaudinov, the commander of Akhmat's Chechen forces, expressed shock, saying that Remeslo seemed “a completely balanced person” and even speculated that he might have been kidnapped or forced. Representatives of the Russian opposition in exile, led by Leonid Volkov (Alexei Navalny's former cabinet leader), viewed Remeslo's radical transformation with disbelief.
Volkov initially suggested that the message might be a “false flag operation” of the FSB, aimed at identifying the critics of the regime still hidden in the power structures, emphasizing that the blogger never acted without a financial interest. However, the brutality of the attack on Putin was considered far too extreme even for a controlled intelligence challenge.
