[9] In December of the same year, she criticised as "authoritarian" a Labour councillor's comments that cannabis users should not be allowed to live in council housing.

The Labour candidate Jeremy Corbyn won, with Russell coming in third place with 5,043 votes and a voteshare of 10.2%.

[11] In December 2017, she promoted and participated in a "human barrier" demonstration in favour of safer bike lanes.

[17] In December of the same year, she successfully proposed a motion at the London Assembly that brought forward the city's target to be carbon neutral from 2050 to 2030.

[19][20] In the following month, Transport for London suspended advertising from a list of countries with poor human rights records after Russell raised the issue.

[24] Russell was the second candidate on the Green Party list for the 2021 London Assembly election, which had been scheduled for 2020 before being delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.