Police detained politician Boris Nadezhdin and brought him to a police station in Dolgoprudny, a Moscow suburb, over a link to a YouTube stream by Elvira Vikhareva that was posted in Nadezhdin's Telegram channel in 2023.
At the 58th minute of the 90-minute stream, a photo of Alexei Navalny appeared on screen for several seconds. At that moment, Nadezhdin was saying that he would "release" Navalny and other political prisoners with his "first decree."
Officers drew up an administrative protocol under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which prohibits displaying extremist symbols. Nadezhdin was released later that evening; a court hearing on the administrative case is scheduled for July 17. If the ruling takes effect, the politician will be barred from running in elections for one year.
Nadezhdin's lawyer was initially denied access to him. Officers at the station first claimed the politician was not there; when the lawyer threatened to file a missing-person report, the detention was confirmed.
The day before the incident, the Justice Ministry designated Nadezhdin a "foreign agent," citing his dissemination of "fakes" about government decisions and calls for unsanctioned protests. Despite the status, which legally disqualifies him from running for office, Nadezhdin continues collecting signatures to participate in State Duma elections.
Nadezhdin, 63, is a member of the Dolgoprudny city council, a former State Duma deputy from the Union of Right Forces, and was a presidential candidate in the 2024 election (the Central Election Commission refused to register him). In an interview on The Breakfast Show, he said he might leave Russia, noting that the idea is discussed more by his family than by him.
"I feel anxious. Because it's obvious: yesterday they just wanted to lock me up. Unfortunately, I'm not in a state of health or at an age where I could even survive 15 days in a stuffy cell. I would just die there," the politician told Agentstvo.