A pro-Kremlin lawyer and propagandist who suddenly turned on Vladimir Putin has reportedly been admitted to a psychiatric clinic.
TV pundit Ilya Remeslo, 42, was previously a staunch Putin supporter and endorser of Russia’s illegal invasion into Ukraine.
But earlier this week, he posted a series of messages on the messaging website Telegram, describing him as a ‘war criminal, liar, and thief’, and forecast a coup would topple him this year.
He said Putin’s war in Ukraine had turned into an abject failure with up to two million casualties.
‘Vladimir Putin is not a legitimate president,’ he posted. ‘Vladimir Putin must resign and be prosecuted as a war criminal and a thief.
‘[Putin] is becoming weaker and weaker, year after year. You can see what is happening now, complete disarray and instability.
‘There are already clear signs of an approaching collapse of the system. Because Putin is afraid to surround himself with worthy rivals, people who could genuinely compete with him, he will lose power.
‘This will most likely happen this year, in 2026.’
He criticised Kremlin propaganda which claims the West is preparing WW3 against Russia.
‘No one is calling for war against Russia,’ he said. ‘But now the war is being waged solely for Putin’s ego complexes, and we ordinary citizens get nothing from it, only losses.’
Such was the disbelief of his furious onslaught, which spread like wildfire among Kremlin officials, that Remeslo posted a video to insist these were his words and he had not been hacked.
Hours later, Remeslo was reportedly admitted to a psychiatric facility in St Petersburg.
Friends have said they have been unable to reach him at the Skvortsov-Stepanov City Psychiatric Hospital in the city of St. Petersburg.
He was reportedly sent to a ward for patients suffering from ‘delusions, thought disorders, and incoherent speech’.
The hospital – in Putin’s home city – was used in Soviet times for ‘punitive psychiatry’.
In recent years, there have been allegations of torture inside the jail.
Remeslo denunciation of Putin – the strongest since the war started from an insider – raises questions of whether figures in Putin’s elite are now turning against him.
In recent weeks, the regime has been blocking mobile internet access in Moscow and on the frontline amid the failing war and looming economic calamity.
Security has been stepped up around the Kremlin.
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