Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
It means he is not eligable to run for the State Duma elections this September.
Running for public office takes immense courage, especially when your ideas clash directly with the ruling powers.
With the Russian domestic elections for the State Duma coming in September, the race to be eligible to run for a seat in Parliament is in its final sprint, but a former member of the Duma has been barred from running after being branded a “foreign agent.”
Even though he was born and raised in the Soviet Union.
A sudden roadblock
Russia has officially branded the prominent anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin a foreign agent.
This swift move by the Justice Ministry effectively bars him from running in the upcoming parliamentary elections this September.
According to The Moscow Times, the decision arrived just weeks after Nadezhdin filed his official paperwork to run for the lower-house State Duma. Russian law strictly prohibits anyone with this legal designation from seeking public office.
Officials did not take long to justify their action against the vocal critic. The government accused him of creating and distributing materials from other blacklisted individuals while also working alongside banned groups.
In an official statement, the ministry outlined its specific grievances. “He spread false information about the Russian government’s decisions and policies, and about Russia’s electoral system,” the ministry stated.
Expanding the net
The state also took aim at his organizing efforts. “He also called on people to take part in unauthorized rallies and pickets,” the ministry added. Despite the crushing ruling, the politician remains defiant. Meduza reported that he plans to stay in the country and continue his political struggle.
Nadezhdin was not the only target of Friday’s sweeping legal actions. The authorities also slapped the same label on his campaign office, a YouTube host named Yekaterina Voropay, and an Arctic tourism expert named Timofey Rogozhin.
The Moscow Times reported that Nadezhdin previously tried to challenge Vladimir Putin in the 2024 presidential election. Election officials ultimately disqualified him from that race. Since the state introduced the controversial law in 2012, hundreds of journalists, activists, and cultural figures have received the label.
The designation forces individuals to plaster a massive, wordy warning on all public posts. It functions as a tool designed to alienate critics. The Kremlin effectively marks them as enemies of the state.
Who is Boris Nadezhdin?
Born in April 1963 in Soviet Uzbekistan, his family moved to a town just north of Moscow when Nadezhdin was six years old.
He graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1979, specializing in physics and mathematics. Before serving in the State Duma from 1999 to 2003, he worked as an engineer and researcher.
He has repeatedly spoken out against the official policies of the Kremlin, sparking controversy in 2022 when he said on a talk show that the Soviet Union had “occupied Czechoslovakia and Eastern Europe.”
In January 2023, he called the war in Ukraine “a disastrous mistake.”
