A Kremlin loyalist known for going after Russia’s opposition has abruptly broken ranks, publicly denouncing President Vladimir Putin in a scathing manifesto that has left both supporters and critics struggling to find an explanation for the shift.
On Tuesday night, 42-year-old lawyer and blogger Ilya Remeslo published a post on his Telegram channel with the title “Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin.”
In it, he accuses the Kremlin leader of sending Russians to their deaths in a “dead-end war” against Ukraine, wrecking the economy, eroding living standards, tightening control over the internet and media and allowing corruption to flourish.
“Vladimir Putin is not a legitimate president. Vladimir Putin must resign and be put on trial as a war criminal and thief,” the manifesto concludes.
While prominent figures in Russia’s online pro-war community, collectively known as “Z-bloggers,” occasionally criticize the authorities, Remeslo’s direct and unyielding attack on the Russian president is unusual, and it has set off a frenzy of speculation across the political spectrum.
Pro-Kremlin television host Vladimir Solovyov suggested Remeslo may have “snapped” or “switched camps.”
Apti Alaudinov, who commands Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s Akhmat special forces, described Remeslo as “someone who always seemed completely level-headed” and suggested that the lawyer may have been kidnapped.
“He was the main driving force behind jailing Navalny. As far as I understood, he was fully on Russia’s side. What he’s doing now is simply alarming — unless he’s being held somewhere against his will or something like that,” Alaudinov said.
Russia: A Pro-Kremlin Blogger Has Denounced Putin – And No One Knows Why
