March 30, 2026

The Most Dangerous Russian Skill


The Most Dangerous Russian Skill
 Weigh every word. The Russian Life files.

On the night of March 17-18, pro-government blogger Ilya Remeslo suddenly spoke out [translated here into English] against the Russian president’s actions and became hero for a day. In a series of telegram posts issued one after another, he called Vladimir Putin a war criminal and predicted the regime’s imminent collapse. 

The transformation was utterly shocking. After years of loyalty to the Russian state, Remeslo's comments represent a major transgression of an absolute taboo. To refute speculation that his account had been hacked, Remeslo recorded videos, claiming he was “in Russia, at home” and that he “isn't going anywhere."

Analysts from various political camps began debating what had just happened. Some believed that, since the blogger had not yet been arrested, it must be a deliberate provocation sanctioned by the Kremlin. Others countered that this was out of the question, since Remeslo had crossed numerous “red lines,” including, for example, mentioning Putin’s children. 

There were also those who believed in his sincere disappointment with the government, but it is difficult to accept that such a dangerous and drastic act was committed without any purpose or calculation. Remeslo calls himself a lawyer, but the fact is that he is a professional informant who has participated in campaigns against opposition parties and, in particular, facilitated the criminal prosecution of Alexei Navalny. He has shown no remorse about his statements. Some experts have suggested that Remeslo fell out with one of his powerful patrons and is trying to get sent to prison, where he will be safer than he is on the outside. 

However, the very next day, reports emerged that Ilya Remeslo had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital in St. Petersburg. It is unclear which version of events this development confirms. Whether he went there as a result of a genuine nervous breakdown, as a form of punishment, or, on the contrary, to avoid punishment, remains unknown.

The theatrical, grotesque tragicomedy of this situation, unfolding in an atmosphere of fear, evokes associations with various artistic classics of the twentieth century. First and foremost, of course, the psychiatric hospital from Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita comes to mind. This place was home both to a small man broken by an encounter with a supernatural force, and a writer who had fallen out of favor with the authorities.

The literariness of the plot with Ilya Remeslo is doubled by his telling surname, which translates as “skill.” The Russian internet was immediately flooded with jokes like, “this Skill will lead you to trouble.” 

 

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