Russian blogger who criticised Putin and the war has been detained, TASS reports

MOSCOW, July 17 - Russian blogger Ilya Remeslo, who criticised President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine, has been detained on suspicion of spreading false information about the armed forces, state news agency TASS reported on Friday.

Remeslo, previously a pro-Kremlin figure, published a manifesto on social media that went viral in March, entitled "Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin."

TASS cited law enforcement as saying that Remeslo faced up to 10 years in prison.

A St Petersburg lawyer who rose to prominence as a public critic of Alexei Navalny, the anti-Kremlin opposition leader who campaigned against corruption and died in prison in 2024, Remeslo turned sharply against Putin in March 2026.

Remeslo's manifesto denounced the Ukraine war, restrictions on freedom of speech and called for Putin to step down as Russia's leader and face trial.

Days after publishing the manifesto, Remeslo was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in St Petersburg.

The circumstances of his hospitalization remain unclear, and it has not been established whether he was admitted voluntarily or involuntarily. Remeslo was released about a month later. REUTERS