Boris Nadezhdin, the Russian anti-war politician who once tried to challenge Vladimir Putin for the presidency, says he has fled Russia after being designated a "foreign agent" by the justice ministry. He announced the news in a video filmed in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, saying he was "alive and free" but no longer in Russia. The development marks a further tightening of the space for anti-war dissent in Russia, as one of the few figures who had attempted to run against Putin on a peace platform is now unable to operate within the country at all.

Nadezhdin, 63, rose to prominence in early 2024 when he sought to stand for president on a manifesto calling for an end to the war in Ukraine, but was barred after officials ruled that more than 15% of his supporting signatures were flawed. He was labelled a "foreign agent" last month after announcing plans to run in September's Duma elections, accused of spreading false information and encouraging unauthorised rallies, and was also charged with "displaying extremist symbols" over a brief image of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a reposted video. He told BBC Russian last week that his prospects were "vague" after abandoning his parliamentary campaign, before posting the Paris video on Monday saying he needed to "figure out what to do next".