MOSCOW: A Russian activist who spent years targeting opponents of the Kremlin before unexpectedly denouncing President Vladimir Putin and his Ukraine offensive was arrested Friday, state media reported.
Ilya Remeslo, 42, faces charges of "spreading fakes on the Russian army", under censorship laws Moscow introduced when it sent troops to Ukraine, according to the TASS news agency.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison. Sergei Badamshin, named by independent media as his lawyer, said on social media that Remeslo was being transported to Moscow to face court.
Remeslo had for years been associated with the Kremlin's repression and targeting of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, testifying against him in court and helping land him in prison.
Navalny died in an Arctic penal colony in 2024.
But earlier this year, Remeslo turned on the Kremlin, publishing a "manifesto" against Putin and saying the longtime leader should be put on trial.
Shortly afterwards, he was sent to a psychiatric hospital -- in an episode reminiscent of Soviet-era forced hospitalisation.
His arrest came a day after Remeslo wrote on his social media that "Putin will be led away in handcuffs this autumn" and that "the situation is rapidly deteriorating for Putin."
The Russian leader's personal ratings have taken a hit this year, as Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries have triggered a nationwide fuel crisis and are hitting ordinary life in a fifth year of war.
In an interview with Russian TV personality Ksenia Sobchak in April, Remeslo said he felt "some guilt" over the fate of Navalny.
"Not a single person deserves dying in those conditions."
Russia does not tolerate criticism of Putin -- in power for more than 25 years -- or of its more than four-year military offensive against Ukraine, having introduced massive censorship after it launched the war in 2022.
Almost all of Putin's major critics are in jail, exile or dead.