More than 100,000 supporters: Russian war opponent runs for president

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After a much-lauded signature campaign, Russian war opponent Boris Nadezhdin has now officially registered to be approved as a candidate for the presidential elections on March 17. On Wednesday, the 60-year-old personally delivered several boxes containing the 105,000 citizen signatures needed for a candidacy to the headquarters of Russia’s Central Election Commission in Moscow.

Addressing his supporters, Nadezhdin wrote on the Telegram news service: “Thanks to you we are here. Thank you.” The chance that Nadezhdin’s name will eventually appear on the candidate list is probably not that great.

The liberal politician, who wants to stand as a candidate for the ‘Citizen Initiative’ party, is the only presidential candidate who openly opposes the war of aggression that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has been waging against Ukraine for almost two years.

Twice as many signatures as needed

The opposition politician unexpectedly received strong support from many compatriots for his anti-war position. In recent weeks, people in various regions of Russia have stood in long lines to support Nadezhdin with their signatures. Russian citizens abroad also signed for Nadezhdin. About 200 signatures were collected in Switzerland, writes ‘Swissinfo’.

In the end, according to Nadezhdin’s team, about twice as many signatures were collected as would be required under Russian electoral law.

But Russia’s presidential election is already rife with allegations of fraud and manipulation and, from the Kremlin’s perspective, serves primarily to secure Putin’s fifth term in office. Many observers assume that the election commission will soon use a pretext to throw Nadezhdin out of the race – possibly by having signatures declared invalid.

In late December, authorities had already denied Kremlin critic Yekaterina Duntsova a presidential candidate because the signatures she had collected reportedly contained too many errors. Duntsova then called for support for Nadezhdin, as did opposition leaders Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Alexei Navalny. (SDA)

Source: Blick