In Russia, an opposition figure has been detained again - this time Boris Nadezhdin, the man who in 2024 tried to run against Vladimir Putin on a platform to end the war in Ukraine. They took him from his home, in a town west of Moscow, and brought him to a police station.

“They took him from his home. The reason for the detention is unknown,” his spokeswoman said. But the timing says a lot. The detention comes just days after Nadezhdin announced he would run in the parliamentary elections scheduled for September 2026. Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Justice put him on the list of “foreign agents,” accusing him of spreading false information and inciting unauthorised protests - a status that can practically knock him out of the race.

This is not the first time. In 2024, the Central Election Commission rejected his candidacy, claiming that over 15 percent of the collected signatures of support were invalid - a decision he challenged, unsuccessfully. Putin won those elections and can stay in power until 2036. The pattern is familiar: anyone who shows they have support is quietly removed before they become a problem.

And Nadezhdin himself remained defiant: “What can I say? I keep living and I keep fighting... This probably won’t change anything in my political career. I will still run for the State Duma and collect signatures.” Courage or futile stubbornness - it is hard to say when the system is built so the outcome is known in advance. But the story is a reminder that even where democracy is only a decoration, there are still people who refuse to stay silent.