Naderzdin said he was determined to run.
Russia’s anti-war presidential candidate Boris Nadezhdin received 105,000 signatures in support of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) on Wednesday, technically enough to challenge incumbent President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s March election Vladimir Putin.
No one expected the 60-year-old Nadezhdin to win. Putin, 71, who has been president or prime minister since late 1999, controls all the levers of the country and his victory is widely seen as a foregone conclusion.
But Nadezhdin surprised some analysts with his sharp criticism of the Kremlin’s so-called “special military operations” in Ukraine, calling it “a fatal mistake” and saying he would try to negotiate it End this action.
Kremlin critics say Nadezdin has been a regular on state television programs discussing the war and could not have gotten as far as he did in such a tightly controlled political system without the support of the authorities, which he denies. .
Still, his outspoken rhetoric about the Russian war has fueled speculation that he may have crossed an unspoken red line and will be barred from running or forced to withdraw on a technicality.
Speaking on Wednesday, Nadezdin said he was determined to run.
“It would be difficult for the Central Election Commission and the authorities to say: ‘I didn’t notice the elephant in the room!'” he said, referring to his success in collecting the necessary signatures and delivering them to the Central Election Commission’s Moscow headquarters. In cardboard box.
Election officials will check the authenticity of signatures submitted by Nadezhdin and other potential candidates, several of whom have dropped out of the race in recent days.
Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of international affairs at New York’s New School, told Reuters in an interview that Nadezhdin’s campaign was becoming a problem for Putin.
She said that by signing for him, representatives of what she calls the “silent majority” of Russians who want an end to the war are making their voices heard – even though it may be risky for them.
Khrushcheva said if the Kremlin was counting on Nadezhdin to play the role of opposition candidate to make the election look like a proper contest, it might be miscalculating.
“One of the things the Kremlin does when you’re in power for 25 years is you actually don’t think you’re going to fail… (Putin) thinks he can control everything and that all these things are small problems that can be overcome and let’s let It becomes more complicated,” she said.
“It’s like, he’s a KGB guy, so let’s play a game of chess and see how it goes.”
She said it remained to be seen whether the electoral commission would find an excuse to prevent Nadezhdin from voting. The committee has disqualified candidates in the past after deciding that some supporters’ signatures were invalid. There is now 10 days to decide whether to register him.
“fatal error”
In his speech to the Central Election Commission, Nadezhdin emphasized that all signatures were collected within Russia and complied with regulations, excluding signatures collected abroad. He also said his campaign was funded entirely by tens of thousands of donations from what he called “ordinary people.”
“Putin made a fatal mistake by launching a special military operation (in Ukraine),” Nadezhdin said.
As a party-nominated candidate, Nadezdin needs to collect 100,000 signatures in at least 40 regions to run in the March 15-17 elections.
Putin chose to run as an independent rather than as a candidate for the ruling United Russia party, so 300,000 signatures were needed. He has raised more than $3.5 million, according to his supporters.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
