This anti-war politician just fled Russia. He believes Putin knows the war is costing him support

Key Points:

• Boris Nadezhdin, a longtime Russian opposition politician, fled Russia after being summoned by the Investigative Committee amid fears of criminal charges, narrowly escaping potential imprisonment in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison.
• In July, Nadezhdin was labeled a “foreign agent,” banned from leaving Russia, fined on dubious charges, and ultimately barred from running in the 2024 presidential election after authorities invalidated many of his collected signatures.
• Despite increasing repression, Nadezhdin noted a significant shift in Russian public opinion against the war in Ukraine, with declining support for President Putin and growing anti-war sentiment even among elites close to the Kremlin.
• The Kremlin has intensified crackdowns on opposition, exemplified by the recent banning of the liberal Yabloko party from parliamentary elections, signaling a tightening grip on political dissent ahead of September polls.
• Nadezhdin emphasized that Russia’s “red lines” for opposition have shifted to an absolute ban on criticizing the war, marking a harsher phase of political repression that even moderate critics like himself can no longer safely navigate.