As of: February 24, 2024, 4:35 p.m
By: Yekaterina Jalunina
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The Russian opposition has been confronted with threatening challenges for years.
These include restricting political gatherings and persecuting government critics.
MOSCOW - Russian opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin has announced that he will not call on his supporters to protest against his exclusion from next month's Russian presidential election.
In an interview with The
Moscow Times
, Nadezhdin said that he had learned from the mistakes of his predecessor Alexei Navalny and did not believe it was right to subject his supporters to police violence.
Fight to take part in the Russian election – despite exclusion and repression
“That would mean exposing my supporters to the police and the batons of the Russian National Guard,” emphasized Nadezhdin, referring to the feared harsh reprisals against opposition protests in Russia.
“It’s not right and it doesn’t lead to anything,” he said.
Despite the broad approval of his supporters, Nadezhdin was excluded from the presidential election.
A decision confirmed this week by Russia's Supreme Court.
Nevertheless, he plans to appeal this decision and continue to use legal avenues to advocate for participation in the elections.
Boris Nadezhdin was seen as the hope of the opposition.
© Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP/dpa
He emphasized that he would continue to try to use the justice system to get back on the ballot.
The latest wave of repression in Russia, intensified by the death of Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison colony, has plunged the Russian opposition into a period of despair.
Both Navalny and Nadezhdin were barred from running for president.
After Navalny's death: Nadezhdin relies on electoral reforms, not street protests
Unlike Navalny, who called for mass protests to protest his exclusion from the presidential election, Nadezhdin favors change through the electoral system.
He emphasized that he was not striving for a revolution in Russia, but for democratic change through fair elections.
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Opposition politician Nadezhdin: Why he rejects personal attacks on Putin
The 60-year-old emphasized the differences between his political approach and that of his predecessor Alexei Navalny.
While Navalny has made a name for himself through his investigations into President Vladimir Putin and his lifestyle, Nadezhdin emphasizes that he has never made personal attacks against Putin.
“Navalny ended up behind bars primarily because he criticized Putin on a personal level, he made very harsh statements about Putin,” Nadezhdin said.
Although he criticizes Putin's policies, he never criticizes him as a person.
Nadezhdin also raised concerns about Navalny's strategy of exposing high-level corruption, calling it ultimately ineffective in the Russian context.
"Corruption allegations don't work at all in Russia because the majority of Russians think more or less like this: 'If someone is in the government, it's completely normal for them to receive [illegitimate] income,'" he said.
“Victims of political repression” – after Navalny’s death
After the death of Alexei Navalny in a Russian penal colony, Nadezhdin expressed his condolences and considered him a victim of the regime's political repression.
“If Alexei had not been put in prison for many years on absolutely false accusations and if they had not accepted all these harsh prison conditions, I think he would be alive,” Nadezhdin said.
Russian opposition critic Alexei Navalny died in a Russian prison camp on February 16th.
© Pavel Golovkin/AP/dpa
Although Navalny's allies and Western officials hold President Putin personally responsible for his death, Nadezhdin believes it is inappropriate to jump to political conclusions.
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