Russian anti-war politician Nadezhdin says he has been detained


Russian opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin attends a court hearing in the case of Maxim Kruglov, the deputy leader of the liberal Yabloko party who is charged with deliberately spreading false information about the Russian army during the conflict against Ukraine, in Moscow, Russia, June 24, 2026. REUTERS/Ramil Sitdikov

MOSCOW, July 13 (Reuters) - ⁠Boris Nadezhdin, an anti-war Russian politician ⁠who attempted to run against President ‌Vladimir Putin in the 2024 presidential election, said on Monday he had been detained by police, days after ​being designated a "foreign agent" by ⁠authorities.

Nadezhdin, a former ⁠liberal member of Russia's parliament from 1999 to ⁠2003, ‌wrote on Telegram: "The police have come", and that he was being ⁠taken to the police station in his ​hometown ‌of Dolgoprudny, north of Moscow.

Russian media cited ⁠Nadezhdin's lawyer ​as saying that the politician had been charged with displaying an extremist symbol. It was ⁠not clear what symbol the ​charges concerned.

An opponent of the war in Ukraine, Nadezhdin attempted to register as a candidate ⁠in Russia's 2024 presidential election, but was blocked by the electoral commission, which cited errors among the 105,000 voter signatures he ​submitted.

Last Friday, Nadezhdin was ⁠designated a "foreign agent" by Russia's justice ministry, a ​legal category that has ‌been widely used against critics ​of the Kremlin.

(Reporting by Reuters, Writing by Felix LightEditing by Gareth Jones)

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