Overview
- Nadeschdin announced on Sunday that he will not register or hand in the hundreds of signatures his team collected to run in his home constituency of Mytishchi.
- He was fined on Friday after a court convicted him of displaying what authorities called 'extremist symbols' in a widely shared video that showed Alexei Navalny's image.
- Russian authorities designated Nadeschdin as a 'foreign agent' and briefly detained him last Monday, actions he says blocked legal campaigning.
- Nadeschdin said he had been 'silenced' and refused to put supporters at legal risk, which is why he abandoned plans to contest the Duma vote.
- His exit follows a wider pattern of legal and administrative pressure since the start of the offensive in Ukraine that has limited opposition participation and narrowed competition for the September parliamentary election.