Court fines Boris Nadezhdin, the antiwar politician who tried to challenge Putin in Russia’s 2024 presidential race, over a Navalny photo
This is a brief retelling of the remarks the politician Boris Nadezhdin made shortly before a court in Dolgoprudny, in the Moscow region, fined him 1,000 rubles on a charge of displaying “extremist symbols.” The case was triggered by his posting a link to a video featuring a photograph of Alexey Navalny, the opposition leader who died in an Arctic penal colony in 2024.
The fine was part of a campaign to pressure Nadezhdin, who had been trying to run for the State Duma. After he announced his plans, he was designated a “foreign agent” by Russian authorities. Both that status and the fine bar him from running for office.
The meaning and context have been preserved, but some portions of his remarks may have been edited or reordered.
The real goal of this trial is to silence me and keep me from running for the State Duma. If I am found guilty, I will lose the right to run — and according to polls, I am currently winning the race. This is a farcical situation. I cannot understand why Alexey Navalny’s face qualifies as the symbol of an extremist organization. If that is the case, then people who resemble him should be detained. It’s absurd.
This case differs from those earlier ones. Until now, people were punished for posting photos of Navalny on their social media. But my Telegram channel has never contained any image of Navalny — not now, not ever. The image exists on another person’s YouTube channel.
If you find me guilty, there are two options: an arrest and a fine. But neither can be applied to me. I am a sick man: I have diabetes, [a Group II disability, one of Russia’s more severe classifications,] and a history of two heart attacks. When I arrived here today, my blood pressure was 200 over 120. I will simply die in there, do you understand? I’ll drop dead if I have to sit in a stuffy cell. And I won’t be able to pay the fine: all my accounts have been frozen because of bankruptcy.
Your Honor, the choice is yours. You can go down in history as one of the authors of an extraordinary trial. Or you can rule according to conscience, the law, and common sense. I ask that you find me not guilty and release me.
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What’s this about?
According to Nadezhdin, he is being tried for posting a link announcing a stream by fellow politician and Putin critic Elvira Vikhareva. He said that when he posted the link, he did not know what Vikhareva would show on the stream.