Presidential elections in Russia: Putin gets rid of the last remaining pacifist candidate in the electoral race

The only candidate who supported peace with Ukraine will ultimately not be able to run in the presidential elections to be held on March 15, 16 and 17 in Russia. He veteran politician Boris Nadezhdin announced on Thursday that the Central Election Commission (CEC) he had refused to register it participate in the elections and face the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, whose re-election is more than certain.

Before announcing the incident in a Telegram message, the Commission explained that it had ascertained too many invalid signatures among the 105,000 that Nadezhdin’s team submitted on January 31.

Every candidate who presents himself in the elections without having a party represented in Parliament behind him must gather a certain number of votes. Who, like Nadezhdin, has an extra-parliamentary political education (Civic Initiative) They had to submit 100,000 valid collateral.

From Nadezhdin’s support companies, the Election Commission declared null and void 9,147. This represents more than 5% authorized to register the candidate.

After learning this information, the politician proposed to the CEC postpone the decision on its registration. But its president, Ella Pamfilova, explained that the body is obliged to move forward and cannot adapt to the needs of a particular candidate. The official deadline for accepting or declining candidate registration is on February 10th.

“The most important decision of my life”

The already rejected candidate expressed his disagreement with the decision on his Telegram channel. “I do not agree with the decision of the Election Commission (…) I will appeal to the Supreme Court of Russia“he promised.

“I collected more than 200,000 signatures throughout Russia. We carried out the collection in an open and honest way: eliminating queues in our offices and collection points they have been seen all over the world“, he explained. “Participate in the 2024 presidential elections It is the most important political decision of my life. “I will not give up my intentions.”

The Commission On the same day he also denied Sergei Malikovich registration as a candidate. candidate for the Communist Party of Russia, a small party that split from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in 2012.

After verifying 60,000 signatures, heOfficials certified that there were 8,979 invalid signatures, already exceeding the permitted 5%. Pamfilova said the decision “was taken unanimously.”

At the moment, the Russian Election Commission has registered four presidential candidates in next month’s presidential elections. Leonid Slutski, leader of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party; Nikolai Kharitonov, by the Communist Party; AND Vladislav Davankovof Gente Nueva, did not have to present signatures of support because their parties, with parliamentary representation, support them.

The fourth is Vladimir Putin. The Russian president decided to run as an independent candidate, without the support of his party, United Russia, and had to collect 300,000 signatures. He presented them at the end of January and was registered.

An uncomfortable surprise for the Kremlin

The figure of Boris Nadezhdin, a 60-year-old veteran politician little known in Russia, it became a surprise in January, when Thousands of Russians began lining up to give him their supportboth within the country and in some offices located abroad.

The absence of significant opposition to Putinthe majority of whose representatives are in prison or exile, allowed this attraction. Some important figures, such as the exiled former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky or the team of the detained Alexei Navalny, They showed their support.

But above all it mattered his critical position towards the Kremlin’s policy in Ukraine. As a candidate he promised it the end of the war and the return of the mobilized. Speaking about the “special military operation”, the official name given to the conflict, he said it seemed to him “a fatal mistake”. He also promised the release of Russian political prisoners.

With liberal positions (at the beginning of the century he was a deputy of the now defunct Union of Right Forces), Today he is a municipal councilor in Dolgoprudni, a city of 120,000 inhabitants 20 kilometers from Moscow.

Despite this position, some voices critical of the Kremlin have suggested that Nadezhdin, who has regularly appeared as a guest on television programs about the conflict, could not have arrived here if the authorities had not allowed it, which he denied.

Indeed, another anti-war candidate, journalist Yekaterina Duntsova, was disqualified by the CEC in December, citing flaws in the application and documents submitted to register as a candidate for the elections.