Elections: Russia: Nadezhdin is threatened with elimination in the presidential election

According to his statement, Russia’s Central Election Commission has revoked 15 percent of his supporters’ signatures as incorrect. “We plan to get these signatures back,” the liberal politician wrote on his Telegram channel.

In order to be registered, Nadezhdin, who has criticized Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine as wrong, would have to have around 4,500 of the 9,209 disputed signatures recognized again, according to his own statements.

Nadezhdin, who wants to run for the Citizens’ Initiative party, is the only presidential candidate who has openly opposed the war of aggression that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has been waging against Ukraine for almost two years. The opposition politician received unexpectedly great support from many compatriots for his anti-war stance.

Nadezhdin is given little chance in the election

In recent weeks, people in various regions of Russia have stood in long lines to support Nadezhdin with their signature. To be registered, he had to produce 100,000 signatures. In the end, the liberal politician says he collected around 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 anyway. They assume that the electoral commission will take the old liberal out of the race under some pretext.

Incumbent Vladimir Putin wants to be re-elected for the fifth time in the presidential election in March – 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.