Russian anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin said on Monday that he had left the country for the time being, weeks after Moscow labeled him a “foreign agent” and barred him from running in parliamentary elections.
“Hello everyone! I have some good news. I am alive and free. Unfortunately, I am not in Russia at the moment,” Nadezhdin said while standing in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris in a short video posted on Telegram.
“For now, I need to get my bearings and understand what to do next. I will write about my plans later,” he added.
Nadezhdin, 63, a former liberal lawmaker, has been an outspoken critic of Moscow’s war in Ukraine. However, like several other opposition figures, he had attempted to operate within Russia’s tightly controlled political system in order to continue expressing his views publicly.
His departure marks the loss of another prominent opposition voice willing to challenge the Kremlin from inside Russia, as most critics of President Vladimir Putin are now either imprisoned or living in exile.
His hopes of running in September’s parliamentary elections were crushed after Russia’s Ministry of Justice added him to its “foreign agents” list on July 10 — a label widely used by authorities against individuals they accuse of engaging in anti-Russian activities with alleged foreign support.
