Boris Nadezhdin detained ahead of Russian Duma elections

Liberal Russian opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin, 63, was taken by police to a station in Dolgoprudny, a town north of Moscow, on 13 July 2026. He announced on Telegram, “Police came. They are taking me to the department in Dolgoprudny,” and was released a few hours later. Russian authorities have designated him a “foreign agent,” a status that bars him from standing in elections. He now faces an administrative charge of displaying “extremist symbols” for sharing a 2023 video that briefly showed the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny; the offence carries a fine or up to 15 days’ detention. Nadezhdin says he will continue to collect signatures to run as an independent candidate for the State Duma in the September 2026 parliamentary vote, despite the foreign‑agent label. The arrest is being portrayed by the politician as a Kremlin effort to keep him out of the Duma and silence anti‑war criticism ahead of the election.