MOSCOW
\nRussian authorities have detained a blogger who criticized President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine and fined an anti-war politician, as Moscow sends a warning signal to critics of the Kremlin ahead of September\u2019s parliamentary election.
\nAlthough Putin maintains a near-total grip on power, he and the dominant United Russia party are under pressure in the lead-up to the vote as Russia grapples with an economic slowdown and fuel shortages triggered by Ukrainian \u200cattacks on oil refineries.
\nThe \u200cblogger, Ilya Remeslo, was detained on Friday on suspicion \u200cof the offense of spreading false information about the Russian army, the TASS state news agency reported.
\nREMESLO\u2019S MANIFESTO ON \u2018WHY I STOPPED SUPPORTING PUTIN\u2019
\nPreviously a pro-Kremlin figure, Remeslo published a manifesto that went viral on social media in March entitled \u201cFive reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin.\u201d He was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where he spent about a month.
\nTASS said he could receive 10 years in prison if convicted.
\nSeparately, Boris Nadezhdin, a politician who attempted to run against Putin \u200cin the 2024 presidential election on \u200can anti-war ticket, was fined 1,000 roubles ($13) for displaying \u201cextremist symbols.\u201d
\nWhile the amount was symbolic, the \u200ccase was part of a series of steps against Nadezhdin that could \u200csignal more serious consequences if he continues to criticize the government on sensitive issues, including what he described this week as the \u201ccompletely senseless fratricidal war.\u201d
\nThe 63-year-old, a liberal member of parliament from 1999 to 2003, was designated last Friday as a \u201cforeign agent,\u201d \u200ca Soviet-era label carrying connotations of spying that bars him from political office. He was detained and questioned on Monday, and later forbidden to leave Russia.
\nThe Kremlin says strict censorship laws are needed to keep Russia united during what it calls an existential confrontation with the West.
\nNadezhdin told Reuters this week that the authorities were acting to prevent him campaigning and airing critical views on topics such as Internet restrictions, fuel shortages and the war.
\nHis lawyer said the \u201cextremist symbols\u201d case stemmed from a social media post linking to a video that included a photo of the late opposition politician Alexei Navalny, whose Anti-Corruption Foundation is banned as an extremist movement. Nadezhdin called the case \u201cridiculous.\u201d
\nThe liberal Yabloko party, which opposes the war in Ukraine, has also had several members disqualified from elections. Last month, its deputy chair, Maxim Kruglov, was jailed for seven years, convicted of spreading \u201cmilitary fakes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW Russian authorities have detained a blogger who criticized President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine and fined an anti-war politician, as Moscow sends a warning signal to critics of the Kremlin ahead of September\u2019s parliamentary election. Although Putin maintains a near-total grip on power, he and the dominant United Russia party are under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-556881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n