Russian anti-war politician says Kremlin wants to crush his campaign

Russian politician Boris Nadezhdin said on 14 July 2026 that the Kremlin wants to crush his campaign for September parliamentary elections after he was detained the day before.

Police have summoned Nadezhdin to court on Friday on administrative charges of displaying extremist symbols. He faces a possible short-term prison sentence over the display of a photo of Alexei Navalny in a 2023 video. The source reported that a conviction would bar him from running.

Nadezhdin had planned to campaign in Moscow's northern suburbs on a platform of ending Russia's war in Ukraine. He told the Russian independent Breakfast Show radio that this had annoyed the country's leadership and said the authorities viewed him as suspicious and wanted him stopped immediately.

Nadezhdin became widely known before the 2024 presidential election, when he was barred from standing against Vladimir Putin. Russian authorities have also declared him a foreign agent, a label the source described as widely used to stifle dissent.

Nadezhdin said he was hoping for a miracle that would allow him to stand for office, but he also said he was considering exile because he did not want to follow the path of Alexei Navalny, the Putin opponent who died in an Arctic prison in 2024. He said a person of his age and with his heart would not last long in a stuffy cell.

The September vote will be Russia's first parliamentary election since Moscow launched its offensive in Ukraine in 2022. The source reported that the Kremlin has imposed severe repression and censorship alongside the military campaign, and that all of Putin's major political opponents are in exile, prison or dead.

The source also reported that Ukrainian strikes have caused nationwide fuel shortages and that Putin's personal ratings have fallen before the election. It said Putin has kept tight control over elections since coming to power, while opposing the Kremlin has become much more dangerous since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine.