Boris Nadezhdin, a Russian politician and former presidential candidate, published a post on his Telegram channel explaining why he decided to leave Russia, saying he wanted to avoid "questions, conspiracy theories and speculation."
Nadezhdin reminded his readers that on July 10 the Justice Ministry designated him a "foreign agent." After that, authorities drew up a protocol against him for displaying extremist symbols over a photograph of Alexei Navalny, the late opposition leader, and banned him from leaving the country.
On July 21, Nadezhdin received a summons from the Investigative Committee, Russia's main federal investigating body. That evening, he said, the travel ban disappeared from the state services portal Gosuslugi. The next day, the politician and his wife flew from Russia to Astana, Kazakhstan.
At the border, he was detained for about ten minutes but released after "consultations with superiors." In Kazakhstan, the couple obtained French visas and arrived in Paris on August 3.
Nadezhdin claims he received no warnings or advice from authorities to leave Russia. He says he has no understanding of why the travel ban was lifted. "Maybe one of my old acquaintances decided — Nadezhdin is better in emigration than in prison. Or maybe the bailiffs read my complaint — and decided not to expose themselves and to cancel a clearly illegal decision," he wrote.
The politician added that he could have stayed in Russia, like Alexei Navalny and Lev Shlosberg, a politician and member of the Yabloko party, who ultimately ended up in prison, but he chose emigration. "Better free in a foreign land than behind bars at home," he explained.
In mid-June, Nadezhdin filed documents to run for the State Duma as a self-nominated candidate and began collecting signatures. After being added to the "foreign agents" registry and fined under the article on displaying extremist symbols, he lost the ability to participate in the elections. Earlier, his autobiographical book "Queue for Hope: An Autobiography with an Open Ending" disappeared from online bookstores — LitRes said the book was removed from sale by decision of the publisher Eksmo.