Meet Boris Nadezhdin, Vladimir Putin’s brave challenger
Backing him is a form of protest
“Idon’t have the charisma of Alexei Navalny or Boris Nemtsov. You can’t make Che Guevara out of me, no matter how hard you try. I have no illusions and don’t pretend to be a hero, God forbid. But it just so happened…” So speaks Boris Nadezhdin, a portly 60-year-old in glasses, a former physicist who spent the past 30 years inside Russian politics, mostly as someone’s deputy or aide, attracting little attention from the wider public.
Explore more
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “A tame runner turns a bit wild”
Europe February 3rd 2024
From the February 3rd 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionDiscover more
Marine Le Pen spooks the bond markets
She threatens to bring down the French government, but also faces a possible ban from politics
The maths of Europe’s military black hole
It needs to spend to defend, but voters may balk
Ukraine’s warriors brace for a Kremlin surge in the south
Vladimir Putin’s war machine is pushing harder and crushing Ukrainian morale
Vladimir Putin fires a new missile to amplify his nuclear threats
The attack on Ukraine is part of a new era of missile warfare
A rise in antisemitism puts Europe’s liberal values to the test
The return of Europe’s oldest scourge
Once dominant, Germany is now desperate
As an election looms its business model is breaking down