Nadezhdin Ends Political Campaign Amid Kremlin Pressure

Anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin announced on Sunday that he would end his involvement in opposition politics, saying mounting pressure from Russian authorities had left him with no choice. Nadezhdin, 63, was fined on Friday for displaying alleged “extremist” symbols. Prior to that, he was briefly detained and designated a “foreign agent,” measures that bar him from collecting the signatures needed to appear on the ballot in September’s State Duma elections.

“They are silencing me, forcing me out of politics and making my life increasingly difficult,” Nadezhdin said on Sunday on the Telegram messaging app. “I no longer have any opportunity to engage in opposition politics legally in Russia. I hope that is only temporary,” he said.

On Friday, a Moscow region judge imposed a fine of 1,000 rubles ($12.76) after finding Nadezhdin guilty of sharing a link to a video that contained an image of the late opposition activist Alexei Navalny, who is on the list of Russia’s terrorists and extremists. The day earlier, Nadezhdin said that Russian authorities had banned him from leaving the country after he said in an interview that he and his family were weighing whether to leave Russia due to growing pressure from the authorities. Reports indicated the travel ban stems from the sudden reopening of an old enforcement proceeding linked to Nadezhdin’s year-old bankruptcy case.

Nadezhdin announced his election campaign for the State Duma last month as an independent candidate. “I am not willing to put at risk those who support me and took part in the election campaign — my family, my campaign team, the signature collectors and my supporters,” he said on Sunday, adding that his team would not submit the signatures it had already collected.

Nadezhdin gained prominence during a failed 2024 presidential bid to unseat President Vladimir Putin on a pro-peace platform, which gained thousands of supporters across Russia. He previously served as an advisor to former Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov in the late 1990s and then as an assistant to former Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko, who is currently deputy first chief of staff in the Kremlin. Nadezhdin was a State Duma lawmaker from 1999 to 2003 and served as a councilman in the Moscow region between 2019 and 2024.