Putin Rival Disqualified from the Russian Election

The election commission in Russia has denied Boris Nadezhdin, an anti-war candidate, the opportunity to run in the upcoming presidential election.

Mr Nadezhdin has expressed his concerns about Vladimir Putin’s military actions in Ukraine, despite the limited tolerance for dissenting opinions in Russia.

He attempted to dispute the election commission’s assertion that over 15% of the signatures he included in his candidate application were invalid.

However, his bid was rejected by the commission.

Undeterred, Mr Nadezhdin expressed his determination on social media to contest the ruling in Russia’s Supreme Court.

“I gathered over 200,000 signatures from all over Russia.” We conducted the collection with complete transparency and integrity.

The Central Election Commission has declared over 9,000 signatures submitted by Mr Nadezhdin as invalid.

According to commission member Andrei Shutov, there were 95,587 names remaining, which fell just short of the 100,000 required signatures to register as a candidate.

The upcoming presidential election in Russia is scheduled to occur from 15-17 March. However, it is widely known that only candidates approved by the Kremlin will be participating, leaving the outcome of the election unsurprising.

Check out Steve Rosenberg’s article on the upcoming elections and how they are perceived by Russians.

The final determination on the eligibility of participants in the election will be announced on Saturday.

Boris Nadezhdin stands out as one of the rare government critics who have managed to make their voices heard on the widely watched talk shows on state-run TV following the events of 24 February 2022.

Despite facing scepticism from certain opposition figures, Alexei Navalny, Russia’s prominent opposition figure, expressed his support for the Nadezhdin campaign while being held in his jail cell within the Arctic Circle.

Mr Nadezhdin made an appearance on BBC TV recently, expressing his commitment to resolving the conflict in Ukraine as soon as he assumes the presidency. However, he acknowledged the challenges he may face in achieving this goal.

“My top priority is to resolve the ongoing conflict with Ukraine and work towards improving relations between Russia and the Western community.”

He is not the only presidential candidate who has campaigned against war. In December, Yekaterina Duntsova, a former TV journalist and independent politician, was disqualified from running due to errors found on her application form by the election commission.