A prominent supporter of the Kremlin who recently shocked many by publicly criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine has been admitted to a psychiatric facility, according to a statement from the hospital on Thursday.
Ilya Remeslo, who built his reputation by opposing Putin’s critics, took a dramatic turn and became a critic himself. On Tuesday evening, he shared a manifesto with his 90,000 Telegram followers, provocatively titled: “Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin.”
In his post, Remeslo condemned Putin for conducting what he described as a “failing war” in Ukraine—a conflict that he claims has resulted in countless deaths and severely damaged Russia’s economy at the expense of its citizens’ welfare.
Remeslo went further, declaring, “Vladimir Putin is not a legitimate president. He must resign and face trial as a war criminal and a thief.” This bold statement sent ripples through both the pro-war blogging community in Russia and the anti-Kremlin opposition living in exile.
Just days after his unexpected declaration, the St. Petersburg-based newspaper Fontanka reported on Thursday that Remeslo had been admitted to Psychiatric Hospital No. 3 in the city.
On Thursday, St Petersburg’s Fontanka newspaper reported Remeslo had been hospitalized in the city’s Psychiatric Hospital No. 3.
Reuters was unable to reach Remeslo himself or determine how he came to be hospitalized.
A woman who answered the hospital’s telephone number confirmed to Reuters that a man with the name, patronymic and surname matching Remeslo’s had been admitted to the facility.
The hospital worker, who did not give her name, said she did not have details about when Remeslo had been admitted and on what grounds.
Remeslo, a 42-year-old lawyer and former member of a Kremlin-controlled advisory body, had in the past heavily criticized the late opposition figure Alexei Navalny, Putin’s most prominent critic who died in an Arctic penal colony in February 2024.
