Pro-Putin blogger turns on his leader

Donovan Lynch  -A prominent Russian blogger who made a name for himself doing the Kremlin’s bidding was sent to a psychiatric hospital after publicly turning on Vladimir Putin in a shocking manifesto earlier this week. Ilya Remeslo, a lawyer and former member of a Kremlin-controlled public advisory body, gained fame by targeting critics of the Russian president, most notably opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

But for reasons unknown, Remeslo suddenly had a very public change of heart this week, posting a scathing manifesto in which he called for Putin’s ouster and demanded he be tried for war crimes...

Remeslo’s unexpected flaying of Putin came at a particularly bad time for the Russian leader, who’s facing criticism from even some longtime supporters over his perceived abandonment of Russian allies Iran and Venezuela. Remeslo also tore into Putin for waging a “dead-end” war in Ukraine that he said was being fought “solely for the sake of Putin’s complexes.”

He called for the Russian leader to be put on trial as a war criminal and thief, blasting the strongman for his repression of media freedom and the internet.