War opponent Nadezhdin is threatened with elimination in the Russian presidential elections. Lufthansa’s ground crew will be on strike from Wednesday

According to his statement, Russia’s Central Election Commission revoked 15 percent of his supporters’ signatures because they were incorrect.

“We intend to get these signatures back,” the liberal politician wrote on his Telegram channel on Monday. To be registered, Nadezhdin, who has criticized Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine as wrong, would have to have about 4,500 of the 9,209 offensive signatures re-recognized, according to his own statements.

Nadezhdin, who wants to run for the Citizens’ 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. The opposition politician unexpectedly received strong support from many compatriots for his anti-war stance.

In recent weeks, people in various regions of Russia have stood in long lines to support Nadezhdin with their signatures. To be registered, he had to provide 100,000 signatures. Ultimately, the Liberal politician says he collected about twice as many. However, only 105,000 signatures may be submitted, which will then be checked for accuracy by the Electoral Commission. Nadezhdin’s team therefore made a pre-selection to ensure that there were no complaints.

Political observers gave Nadezhdin’s candidacy little chance in any case. They assume that the electoral commission will remove the old liberal from the race under some pretext.

Incumbent Vladimir Putin wants to be re-elected for the fifth time in the March presidential elections – and had the Russian constitution rewritten specifically for this purpose in 2020. The Kremlin does not need a large audience for an explicit opponent of its war of aggression. (saw/sda/dpa)