MOSCOW — A Russian politician who openly opposed his country’s military campaign in Ukraine and attempted to run against President Vladimir Putin in last year’s presidential election has now been found guilty of displaying “extremist symbols” — a conviction that effectively shuts him out of this fall’s parliamentary race.
Boris Nadezhdin, 63, faced the charges because of a 2023 online interview in which he briefly held up a photograph of the late opposition figure Alexei Navalny. At the time of the interview, Navalny was serving a 19-year prison term on extremism charges that many observers viewed as politically motivated. Navalny would later die at an Arctic prison facility on February 16, 2024.
Nadezhdin called the case against him ridiculous, arguing that the government was simply trying to prevent him from participating in September’s vote for Russia’s parliament. A court in Dolgoprudny — a town on the northern edge of Moscow where Nadezhdin resides — found him guilty and imposed a fine of 1,000 rubles, the equivalent of about $13.
Just one week before the verdict, Russia’s Justice Ministry labeled Nadezhdin a “foreign agent” — a designation that carries heavy negative implications in Russia and subjects him to increased government oversight. That label also prohibits him from holding public office, though he had still been able to pursue his symbolic parliamentary campaign up until Friday’s ruling.
During Friday’s court proceedings, Nadezhdin reported feeling unwell, prompting the hearing to be paused so medical personnel from an ambulance team could evaluate him. He had previously indicated he was thinking about leaving Russia, but said he has been prohibited from doing so.
Back in January 2024, Nadezhdin gathered tens of thousands of signatures while publicly calling for an end to the fighting in Ukraine. However, Russia’s Supreme Court ruled that more than 9,000 of the signatures his campaign submitted were invalid — enough to disqualify him from the March 2024 presidential ballot. Putin faced only minimal opposition in that election and secured a fifth term with ease.
Since Russian forces entered Ukraine in February 2022, the government has dramatically intensified its suppression of dissent and free expression. Rights organizations, independent journalists, civil society groups, LGBTQ+ activists, and certain religious communities have all been targeted. Hundreds of individuals have been imprisoned, and thousands more have left Russia to escape the crackdown.
In a separate development on Friday, Ilya Remeslo — a blogger and pro-Kremlin activist who has more recently turned critical of Putin — was taken into custody in St. Petersburg. He faces accusations of spreading false information about the Russian military, a charge that has frequently been used to silence government critics.
Russia’s state-run Tass news agency reported that Remeslo would be transported to Moscow for a court appearance. Earlier this year in March, he had publicly criticized the military operation in Ukraine and demanded Putin step down. Shortly after making those remarks, he was placed in a psychiatric facility, where he remained for a month — something he described as retaliation for speaking out.
