Boris Nadezhdin, one of the last remaining critical voices of the Kremlin still audible from Russia, announced his departure from Paris earlier this week. He is withdrawing from the Russian parliamentary elections scheduled for September.
It was in front of the Eiffel Tower that Boris Nadezhdin chose to give a sign of life. "Alive and free," he declared from the French capital, after announcing his departure from Russia. The opposition figure, who was among the few Kremlin critics still able to speak out on Russian soil, is thus yielding to what he describes as increasing pressure from the authorities.
His decision to withdraw from the parliamentary elections next September marks the end of a domestic political presence that many already considered fragile. His exile illustrates a broader trend: that of a Russian opposition forced to organize itself outside its borders.
It is in this context that Olga Prokopieva, vice-president of the Peaceful Russia party, founded in exile in Berlin on June 14, describes a deliberate strategy by Moscow. "Russia is doing everything to put pressure on those who have left," she asserts. A former director of the Russia-Liberties association, she now manages its activities from abroad.
France, where Nadezhdine chose to speak out, is not a random choice. Paris itself is trying to contain Russian interference less than a year before the French presidential election, which places this departure under a dual political spotlight.
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