Russia
Presidential candidate gives up – and campaigns for Putin
Sergei Baburin from the All-Russian People’s Union party withdrew his bid for the presidency before official registration. photo
© Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP/dpa
The next presidential election will take place in Russia on March 17th. Apart from Putin, other applicants are considered to have no chance. After Baburin’s resignation, hope still lies in a candidate.
A month and a half before the presidential election Russia gave up on a candidate before he was officially registered and is instead campaigning for the re-election of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. Sergei Baburin (64) from the All-Russian People’s Union party first brought several boxes to the Central Election Commission today, which allegedly contained the around 100,000 citizens’ signatures needed for a candidacy. A little later, however, he announced that he would withdraw his application.
Baburin officially justified his sudden change of heart with the war in Ukraine. “In this difficult hour for the homeland, it is not time to divide the forces of the people,” Baburin said, according to the state news agency Tass. The nationalist politician did not explain why he announced his candidacy in the first place and had signatures collected.
The prominent journalist Alexei Venediktov suspected that Baburin had received a request from the power apparatus to give up. “He was gently advised not to take even one percent from the president,” wrote Venediktov, the former editor-in-chief of the now-closed Kremlin-critical radio station Echo Moskvy, on Telegram.
No chance for other candidates?
The Russian presidential election on March 17th is already overshadowed by allegations of manipulation and, from the Kremlin’s perspective, serves primarily to secure Putin a fifth term in office. It is also intended to demonstrate the supposedly unbroken social support for Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine. Other applicants are considered to have no chance or even support Putin. According to observers, they are primarily intended to suggest a choice that doesn’t actually exist.
The only thing that is eagerly awaited is what will happen to Boris Nadezhdin – the only candidate who openly speaks out against the war. In recent days, people have been lining up in many Russian cities to sign for Nadezhdin’s candidacy. But many fear that the Russian election commission will use a pretext to throw the war opponent out of the race.