On the morning of July 17, blogger and lawyer Ilya Remeslo, a native of Nalchik and one of the most prominent pro-government authors of recent years, was arrested in St. Petersburg. He is charged with disseminating knowingly false information about the use of the Russian Armed Forces motivated by political hatred (Part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code). This article is classified as a serious crime and carries a sentence of up to ten years in prison.

Lawyer Sergei Badamshin reported the arrest. According to him, Remeslo is being transferred from St. Petersburg to Moscow, where a court will determine a preventive measure for him.

The criminal case was initiated based on posts on Remeslo's Telegram channel made in March 2026. For many years, he remained one of the most prominent pro-government bloggers and lawyers, gaining widespread notoriety for his numerous statements against members of the Russian opposition and his involvement in their public and judicial prosecution.

After his break with the Russian authorities, Remeslo himself revealed that, since the mid-2010s, he had received funding from entities associated with Konstantin Kostin, the former head of the presidential administration's domestic policy department. According to Remeslo, he was "a specialist working exclusively on Navalny" and was involved in projects related to the persecution of the politician.

One of the main targets of his activities was Alexei Navalny and the Anti-Corruption Foundation he founded. Remeslo repeatedly filed complaints against Navalny and his associates with law enforcement agencies, publicly claiming that his complaint formed the basis for the criminal case for alleged fraud involving donations to the Anti-Corruption Foundation. In February 2022, when Navalny was already in prison, he testified for the prosecution in a mobile trial against the politician.

According to investigators, the criminal case against Remeslo is related to publications in which he criticized the Russian military command and its actions. After the criminal prosecution began, he left Russia but later returned and was subsequently detained.

Remeslo's story has become one of the most telling examples of how repressive mechanisms, once created to persecute some, eventually begin to work against those who recently facilitated their use against others.