Election Commission excludes Putin's challenger Boris Nadezhdin from Russian presidential elections in March

Russian presidential candidate Boris Nadezhdin has been barred from participating in the March elections by the Central Election Commission. He did that himself on Thursday announced on Telegramalso Russian media confirm the news. Earlier, Nadezhdin had collected the necessary 100,000 signatures, allowing him to challenge incumbent President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian Election Commission has not yet communicated about the decision. Previously, he had indicated that he had discovered defects among the collected signatures – reportedly at least 200,000. The list would contain signatures of deceased people. The Kremlin indicated on Thursday, according to international news agencies, that the decision – it speaks of “administrative flaws” – to exclude Nadezhdin is in line with Russian election rules.

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The chance that Nadezhdin could participate in the presidential elections was already estimated to be very low. Putin, who has held political power in Russia since 1999, has repeatedly used his grip on Russian institutions to thwart or exclude dissident political voices from political participation.

Nadezhdin, who has been critical of Russia's war in Ukraine in recent years, disagrees with the committee's decision and says he wants to challenge it in the Russian Supreme Court. He emphasizes that the collection of signatures was carried out “openly and honestly”.

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