Boris Nadezhdin leaves Russia for France

Russian opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin announced on Monday, August 3, 2026, that he has left Russia for France, marking the departure of one of the few remaining high-profile critics of President Vladimir Putin who had continued to live in the country. In a video posted on his Telegram channel with the Eiffel Tower visible in the background, Nadezhdin stated he was alive and free but was no longer in Russia.

The 63-year-old former lawmaker and antiwar politician said he needed to get his bearings and would write about his plans later. His exit follows a series of government actions that effectively ended his political activities inside Russia. In July, the Justice Ministry designated Nadezhdin a "foreign agent," a label that brings intense scrutiny and legally barred him from seeking public office. Shortly after that designation, a Russian court fined him approximately 1,000 rubles (about $13) for displaying "extremist symbols" on social media, a charge he dismissed as absurd.

These measures disqualified Nadezhdin from running in the tightly controlled parliamentary elections scheduled for September. He subsequently suspended his campaign, stating that the authorities...