Russian presidential election: Over for war opponent Nadezhdin

If the polls are correct, he would come directly behind incumbent Putin in the Russian presidential election: war opponent Nadezhdin. However, he probably won’t run – the election commission has excluded him.

9,147 – that’s a pretty high number, but in this case it means almost zero for Boris Nadezhdin. The opponent of the war against Ukraine now has little chance of running in the presidential election in Russia scheduled for March. Because 9,147 signatures were incorrect – at least that is what the Central Election Commission of Russia has now officially announced.

“Based on Article 39 of the Law of the Russian Federation on the election of the President of the Russian Federation, we propose to deny Nadezhdin Boris Borisovich registration as a candidate for the office of President of the Russian Federation,” the authority said.

For armistice and Peace negotiations with Ukraine

Nadezhdin had handed over almost 105,000 signatures to the election commission in Moscow; 60,000 of them were checked. And more than five percent, those 9,147, are invalid. For example, eleven signatures were assigned to people who had died, says the electoral commission.

In contrast to the four candidates approved so far – including incumbent President Vladimir Putin – the 60-year-old Nadezhdin has a clear unique selling point: he criticizes the war against Ukraine. During his appearances he also called for an immediate ceasefire – and for peace negotiations. On the first day of his term in office, he also wanted to release all political prisoners in Russia.

After the commission’s statement, Nadezhdin wrote in writing: “I do not agree with the decision. I have collected more than 200,000 signatures throughout Russia. We carried out the collection openly and honestly – the whole world was watching the queues at our staffs and collection points .” Nadezhdin also announced that he would appeal the election commission’s decision to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. However, the chance that the court will grant this is slim.

Second place in the polls

During the hearing in the election commission, Nadezhdin also said: “You have to understand: I’m not standing here now. Behind me are hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens who have signed for me. Hundreds of thousands! There are tens of millions of people here now who are voting for me “According to all the polls, I’m in second place after Putin, double-digit results – that’s tens of millions of people who want to vote for us. And you tell me something about eleven people who died.”

In fact, in the most recent polls, which must be viewed with a certain degree of caution due to the restrictions on freedom of expression in Russia, Nadezhdin would have come second to President Putin in the election. According to the polls, Putin could expect more than 60 percent of the vote, Nadezhdin would have received almost eight percent.

It is controversial whether Nadezhdin wanted to run as a convinced opposition candidate or whether he was tolerated or installed by the presidential administration. Because: If there were a candidate who fundamentally disagreed with President Putin when it came to Ukraine, the election would have something democratic. It is undisputed that Putin will also be the new president. Protests against the war are immediately stopped and critics are harshly punished. Nadezhdin has been an exception so far. However, his appearances received more attention from Western media than from Russian ones.