The Russian anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin, who was barred from taking part in the country’s 2024 presidential election, was detained on Monday, July 13, on charges involving the “public display of banned symbols.” A source familiar with the situation confirmed the information to The Insider. Lawyer Dmitry Trunin also reported the detention.
Nadezhdin was taken to a police station in Dolgoprudny, a city outside Moscow, The Insider’s source said.
“He is at the Dolgoprudny police station. He is being charged under Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code, ‘displaying extremist symbols,’” the source said.
The official cause behind Nadezhdin’s detention was a link he posted to a YouTube video mentioning the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The text of the police report later appeared on Nadezhdin’s Telegram channel.
The link appeared in a post on Nadezhdin’s Telegram channel published in November 2023. It has since been deleted. The link led to a video on activist Elvira Vikhareva’s YouTube channel titled “Candidate Against Putin 2024.”
Nadezhdin was eventually released from the police station after signing an obligation to appear in court on Friday, according to a report by the independent outlet SOTAvision.
Shortly before that, on July 10, Russia’s Justice Ministry added Nadezhdin to its “foreign agents” registry. The label is used by Russian authorities to stigmatize people and organizations accused of being under foreign influence while simultaneously imposing restrictions that effectively stifle the expression of opposition to the Kremlin.
The “foreign agent” status automatically bars a person from running in elections at any level. Nadezhdin had earlier announced plans to run as a self-nominated candidate in the upcoming elections to the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, and his campaign team had begun collecting signatures in several cities.
Nadezhdin served in the State Duma from 1999 to 2003 as a member of the Union of Right Forces. In 2024, he tried to register as an anti-war candidate in Russia’s presidential election. His nationwide signature drive saw tens of thousands of Russians brave winter weather and the surveillance cameras of law enforcement to stand in line and sign their names in support of Nadezhdin’s inclusion on the ballot. However, the Russian Central Election Commission ruled that some of the collected signatures were invalid and refused to register him.
