Boris Nadezhdin, the only candidate who opposed Vladimir Putin in Russia by denouncing the offensive in Ukraine, announced on February 8 that his candidacy for the March presidential elections had been rejected by the Electoral Commission. Putin is seeking a new six-year term in March without major opposition.
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Opponent of the war in Ukraine, he intended to participate in the March presidential elections in Russia against Vladimir Putin: Boris Nadezhdin announced on Thursday, February 8, that his candidacy had been rejected by the Electoral Commission.
In the absence of other better-known opposition figures, all of them in exile or in prison, this discreet veteran of political life has channeled the hopes of Russians who oppose the Kremlin's policies.
Nadezhdin indicated that he wants to challenge the rejection of his candidacy in court, but his chances of success are almost zero.
“The Central Election Commission has refused to register my candidacy,” declared the 60-year-old politician on Telegram. “Participating in the 2024 presidential elections is the most important political decision of my life. I am not going to back down on my intentions. I will appeal the decision of the Electoral Commission to the Supreme Court,” he added.
The body in charge of organizing elections in Russia, loyal to the Kremlin, has not yet made its decision official, but according to Nadezhdin, there is no doubt about it.
In a context of systematic repression of any challenge to power in Russia, There is no doubt that current President Vladimir Putin will be re-elected in the elections to be held on March 15 and 17.
Incorrect signatures
The Electoral Commission has criticized Boris Nadezhdin for not having collected 100,000 valid signatures from voters who support him to be able to run in the presidential elections.
On Monday, a Commission working group had already issued a negative opinion on Boris Nadezhdin's candidacy, stating that had found 15% of “erroneous signatures” among those he had presented, that is, three times more than the authorized error limit.
Boris Nadezhdin had little illusions about his chances of success in the presidential election, but at the end of January he told AFP that he hoped the presidential vote would mark the “beginning of the end” of the Putin era.
“Tens of millions of people were going to vote for me. I am in second place behind Putin,” Boris Nadezhdin declared on Thursday.
Re-election is expected
Boris Nadezhdin, a former liberal MP whose political career has been discreet until now, has promised to end the “nightmare” of the offensive in Ukraine, end the “militarization” of Russia and release “all political prisoners”, such as the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, detained in the Arctic.
Little known outside the small liberal community, Navalny says he launched his campaign in October because no more famous anti-Putin figure had run.
The Kremlin has not hidden its disdain for this figure who, in the Russian political context, seems like an opponent. “We don't see him as a competitor,” Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for the Russian president, told the press at the end of January.
Vladimir Putin, in power since 2000, is seeking a new six-year term in March. Faced with candidates who more or less support his policies, there is no doubt that he will be re-elected. Thanks to a constitutional reform adopted in 2020, he can remain in the Kremlin until 2036the year in which he will turn 84 years old.
With AFP
This article was adapted from its original in French
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