ST. PETERSBURG — Lawyer and pro-Putin blogger Ilya Remeslo posted a message on Telegram on March 17, 2026, titled "Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin." On Thursday, Fontanka reported that he was hospitalized at Skvortsov-Stepanov Psychiatric Hospital No. 3 in St. Petersburg.

In his Telegram post, he described Russia's invasion of Ukraine as "an absolutely dead-end war." He blamed the Kremlin for "enormous damage to the Russian economy and the well-being of citizens." He wrote that Putin planned "to sit on the throne for at least 150 years." He criticized the government's campaign to throttle internet and digital freedoms, including the anticipated ban of Telegram.

"Bottom line. Vladimir Putin is not a legitimate president. Vladimir Putin must resign and be brought to trial as a war criminal and thief," he wrote. He said he had not been hacked, that he remained in Russia, and that he stood by his opinions. He urged Vladimir Solovyov to switch to the "side of light."

A man answering the phone at the hospital said that a person matching the name Ilya Remeslo was admitted on Thursday and that the grounds for hospitalization can only be revealed to the patient's family. In an interview with Agentstvo on March 18, he said he did not plan to leave Russia.

The 42-year-old Remeslo testified against Alexei Navalny in court in 2022 and investigated Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, FBK. The state news agency Tass called him "one of Navalny's most famous whistleblowers." In June 2021, after a court declared Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation extremist, he posted "Swatted like a fly" on X.