India, July 18 -- Boris Nadezhdin, who criticised Moscow's military action in Ukraine and tried to challenge President Vladimir Putin in the 2024 election, was convicted on Friday of displaying "extremist symbols" - an action that will keep him out of this year's parliamentary race.

The charges against Nadezhdin, 63, were based on a 2023 online interview in which he briefly showed a picture of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who at that time was serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges of extremism that were widely seen as politically motivated. Navalny later died in an Arctic penal colony on February 16, 2024.

Nadezhdin rejected the case against him as absurd and argued authorities were trying to keep him from campaignin...