Boris Nadezhdin, who tried to challenge Putin in 2024 on anti-war platform, holds protest against online search ban
Russian politician Boris Nadezhdin and his allies staged a protest outside the State Duma on Tuesday morning against proposed amendments that would impose fines for “searching for extremist materials” online.
Nadezhdin posted a photo on Telegram of political strategist Dmitry Kisiev, who headed his presidential campaign in the 2024 election. In the picture, Kisiev is holding a picket sign outside the Duma building with a sign reading “For a Russia without censorship. Orwell wrote a dystopia, not a manual!”
Just minutes after the protest began, police arrested Kisiev. They also arrested RusNews correspondents Yulia Petrova and Konstantin Zharov, who were filming the demonstration. According to the Telegram channel Ostorozhno, Novosti, a fourth person was also arrested.
Moscow authorities had previously denied the group’s request to protest near the Duma, citing “the current epidemiological situation.”
Nadezhdin, who was the only candidate to run in Russia’s 2024 presidential election on an anti-war platform but was ultimately banned from participating, has been a vocal critic of the bill, which passed its second reading in the Duma on July 17.
Earlier this month, the Russian authorities stripped Dmitry Kisiev of his citizenship, which he had acquired in 2014. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that Kisiev had engaged in “activities that negatively affect political and social stability in society” and pose “a threat to Russia’s national security.”
