"War Criminal": Pro-Kremlin Lawyer Who Helped Jail Alexei Navalny Turns Against Putin

A former Kremlin-linked lawyer and propagandist, who once helped target late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has now publicly turned against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ilya Remeslo has claimed that divisions are growing within the Kremlin over the war in Ukraine and tightening state controls, according to a news report.

Ilya Remeslo was detained in March after he posted online that Putin should resign and face justice as “a war criminal and a thief,” The Washington Post reported. He was sent to a psychiatric hospital in St. Petersburg but was released after 30 days in what the report described as an “unusual” move for the Russian government which is known for harsh crackdowns on critics.

“I said from the beginning that I'm not going to stop. I decided that this is the work of my life,” Remeslo told The Washington Post.

The report mentioned that Remeslo had worked for the Kremlin for nearly a decade and was involved in campaigns against opposition leaders, especially Navalny.

In a recent interview with Russian television personality Ksenia Sobchak, he admitted that he had paid a pensioner to file a fraud case against Navalny linked to donations to the Anti-Corruption Foundation.

The allegations later became part of a case that led to Navalny receiving a nine-year prison sentence in 2022. Navalny died in an Arctic penal colony in February 2024.

Remeslo told The Post that he now regrets his role in the persecution of Navalny and wants to speak out against Putin publicly.

“I understood that this is not the president I voted for. It's a completely different person who just fears a real opponent who represents a threat to him,” he said.

The report also cited Russian opposition leader Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who claimed there was “an absolutely clear conflict” between the presidential administration and the Federal Security Service (FSB).

Remeslo has also reportedly claimed that dissatisfaction with Putin is growing within sections of the Russian political system especially over the Ukraine war, economic troubles and internet restrictions.

“The scale of dissatisfaction is colossal,” he said and added that “part of the system is already starting to work against Putin”.

Remeslo alleged that even some officials inside the Kremlin privately criticise Putin but “publicly they are scared to say this.”

“In the administration there are good people. They snicker at Putin and say he is very primitive and that he is doing everything to lead the country into an abyss,” he said.

He also claimed that Putin could eventually be “toppled by his own circle when he stops being convenient for them completely.”