Opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin announced Monday that he has left Russia, days after he was forced to suspend his bid to run in parliamentary elections this September amid mounting pressure from the authorities.
“The good news is I’m alive and free. But sadly, not yet in Russia,” Nadezhdin said in a video recorded in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
The video, published on Nadezhdin’s Telegram channel, comes after the anti-war politician was fined 1,000 rubles ($13) in July for displaying “extremist” symbols. Before that, he was designated a “foreign agent,” a label that prevents him from seeking public office.
It was not immediately clear when and how Nadezhdin, who said previously that he was banned from leaving Russia, left the country.
Nadezhdin said in the video published on his Telegram channel on Monday that he would now “take stock of the situation and figure out how to go on living.” He promised to provide updates about his future plans.
In an interview with Meduza last month, Nadezhdin said that he and his family were weighing whether to leave Russia due to growing pressure from the authorities. While Nadezhdin expressed a strong desire to stay, he acknowledged the threat of imprisonment, an outcome he said he is also trying to avoid.
Nadezhdin rose to prominence during a failed 2024 presidential bid to unseat Vladimir Putin on a pro-peace platform.
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. Between 2019 and 2024, he served as a councilman in the Moscow region.
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