Putins Kampfhund hat sich gegen ihn gewandt. Es könnte der Anfang vom Ende sein

The [Kremlin](https://inews.co.uk/topic/kremlin?ico=in-line_link) does everything it can to claim that Russian society is squarely behind [Vladimir Putin](https://inews.co.uk/topic/vladimir-putin?ico=in-line_link) and his war, but when one of the Kremlin’s legal attack dogs turns on the President, we begin to see the fault lines open under the pressures of war and economic decline.

Ilya Remeslo was hardly a household name, but the 42-year-old lawyer led a ferocious campaign against [opposition leader Alexei Navalny](https://inews.co.uk/culture/books/alexei-navalny-memoir-review-eerie-extraordinary-3339453?ico=in-line_link), apparently at the behest of the presidential administration. Having initially supported Navalny, a man who came to embody the fight against Putin, he suddenly began accusing him of fraud. He testified for the prosecution in the 2022 show trial that saw Navalny sent to prison. As the world knows, this anti-Putin hero died suddenly two years later in a Siberian penal colony. Russia blamed “sudden death syndrome” but most of the West declared it to be poisoning.

Remeslo turned his attention to Ukraine and started blogging his support for [the war](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/russia-troops-how-many-putin-ukraine-military-power-forces-border-explained-1463621?ico=in-line_link) – until last week that is, when his 90,000 followers on Telegram received a post entitled “Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin.” Quite a moment for such a vocal supporter, and risky too.

He accused [Putin of waging a “failing war”](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/putin-winning-war-against-havent-noticed-4300235?ico=in-line_link) in Ukraine and breaking Russia’s economy, concluding that he “is not a legitimate president. Vladimir Putin must resign and be brought to trial as a war criminal and a thief.”

At first people assumed his account had been hacked, but the next day he doubled down, standing behind his statement. The day after that, he was admitted to St Petersburg’s Psychiatric Hospital No. 3.

While this may sound like [a return to the bad old days](https://inews.co.uk/opinion/worst-war-soviets-fought-is-now-haunting-putin-425335https://inews.co.uk/opinion/worst-war-soviets-fought-is-now-haunting-putin-425335https://inews.co.uk/opinion/worst-war-soviets-fought-is-now-haunting-putin-4253352?ico=in-line_link) when Soviet dissidents would be sectioned and then pumped full of mind-bending drugs, it seems Remeslo admitted himself. It may be that he is trying to avoid arrest or even, realising quite what a hornet’s nest he had kicked, is lining up an “unsound mind” defence.

Either way, his apparent conversion from muckraking loyalist to kamikaze critic has sparked feverish speculation as to just what is behind it, given that until now he had given little sign of being at all uncomfortable with the trajectory of the regime. Indeed, Lt. General Apti Alaudinov, deputy head of the Main Military-Political Directorate, had called him an “absolutely appropriate, pro-Russian and pro-presidential person”.

Russia is full of figures like Remeslo, informational guns for hire, and inevitably some have assumed this is a new Kremlin plot, perhaps to force genuine dissidents to reveal themselves. The fact he used the country’s most popular messaging app, Telegram to launch his broadside is worth noting too.

The authorities have been intermittently interrupting internet access – a major cause of irritation not just for the public and business who rely on it to communicate, but for many in government too.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the Kremlin-appointed governor of Belgorod, a border region that has suffered from Ukrainian drone and missile strikes, has openly criticised the move. Blocking communications, he said, was leading “to death, injuries and destruction” by making it harder to warn people of incoming attacks.

Could the security agencies have used Remeslo? Having him launch an attack on Telegram could help the authorities to justify limiting its use and revealing it as a hot bed of dissent.

Others think this move by this little-known former cheerleader is nothing less than the beginning of the end for Putin. Remeslo, they argue, would not have gone as far as he did without powerful backers, and they, in turn, would not have encouraged a personal attack on the President unless they were ready for a showdown.

This seems deeply implausible. No one has come forward to back Remeslo, and [while Putin’s authority is decaying, he is still unassailable](https://inews.co.uk/opinion/furious-putin-trapped-gilded-cage-death-free-him-4077145?ico=in-line_link). Dissatisfaction within the country and elite alike is growing, but fear of the consequences of any direct challenge outweighs the potential advantages.

Ultimately, it may well be that this was just sour grapes. A source close to the government told *The i Paper*: “Remeslo was angry that the authorities weren’t valuing and paying him enough. He thought he could raise his price by raising his profile.”

Remeslo himself is not that important. However, his case – and the way even the government press has not been able completely to ignore it – highlights the growing sense that the foundations of the regime are being eroded.

As another Muscovite recently retired from the presidential administration told me: “The reason anyone is paying attention to Remeslo is that they are worried, and so they begin to see plots on every side. It’s a provocation by the security services, it’s a strike against Putin, it’s the rats leaving the sinking ship. None of it is probably true, if people think the ship is sinking, they’ll still look for lifeboats.”

Let me guess – the walls are closing in?

If you’re already familiar with the story, a single sentence in the article – „it seems deeply implausible“ – answers the headline.

But it probably isn’t. Trump’s “beginning of the end” was, maybe, Stormy Daniels?