Vladimir Putin does not risk his fifth re -election. Boris Nadezhdin, the only presidential candidate who criticizes Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has now been withdrawn.
On Thursday, the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) disqualified Nadezhdin because of, in her opinion, the inconsistency of documents.
Russian legislation requires candidates from non -parliamentary parties to collect 100,000 signatures. The Nadezhdina team reported that she had brought together about 200,000, submitting a maximum of 105,000 to the CEC. On Monday, the CEC declared an invalid 15 percent of the first 60,000 signatures, putting Nadezhdin below the 5 percent mark of the mark.
"You do not deny me, but dozens of millions of people who hope to change," Nadezhin commented in his Telegram channel.
“Tens of millions of people were going to vote for me here. I'm in second place after Putin, ”he said.
Nadezhdin expected the CEC. "We will challenge not only the refusal itself, but also the procedure for checking the signatures, and at the same time federal law," Nadezhdin said on Wednesday on the show of breakfast on YouTube on Wednesday. According to him, neither the CEC nor the Nadezhdin team would have enough time to check all the signatures that the CEC has questioned.
Nadezhdin appealed to the CEC to give him two more days - but the chairman of the commission, Ella Pamphilova, refused, stating that "the terms were sustained with the stock."
The anti -war position of Nadezhdin has attracted thousands to his headquarters. The queues of his supporters became one of the most prominent manifestations of social disagreement after the beginning of the full -scale invasion of Putin into Ukraine in 2022.
"The Nadezhdina campaign has become an unexpected event ... On which the Kremlin urgently put a point," said Politico Moscow independent political scientist Alexander Kinev.
It provides the Kremlin -headed campaign for Nadezhdin discredit.
Tatiana Kolobakina, a 24-year-old Moscow journalist and political activist, supported Nadezhdin to legally express her anti-war sentiment, despite the fact that he was waiting for his refusal to participate in the race.
“It was important to show that there is much against us. The whole state is aimed at being a minority. Well, these queues show that it is not, ”she said Politico.
Volunteer, 25-year-old Alexei Popov from Yakutsk, who was also expected to refuse the CEC for 5 thousand kilometers from Moscow. "It does not mean that everything was in vain."
Future elections are still a great way to draw people's attention to political processes and problems in Russia, ”he said.
The Kremlin's former political consultant said Politico that the anti -war candidate in the ballot was threatened by Putin's campaigns. "After registration, he will receive access to state television," said a consultant who was allowed to speak frankly about the latest employees anonymously. This level of access to the public was dangerous in itself, explained the consultant.
“Why were dissidents afraid of dissidents in the USSR? Not because it was possible to turn the state. The system itself did not allow dissent - and they are now copying the Soviet system, ”the consultant said.
The success of Nadezhdin has found many, including the Kremlin and Nadezhdin , suddenly, said the consultant.
Elections in Russia are scheduled for March 15-17.
