Nadezhdin said via Telegram on Thursday that he was disqualified from the race because insufficient numbers of the signatures he had collected were deemed to be authentic by the authorities.
This is to confirm Russian authorities have disqualified the lone opponent of Vladimir Putin in the upcoming presidential election, averting a challenge from a man who tapped into an army of simmering anger and unexpectedly amassed significant support.
As the Kremlin plans Putin’s fifth term in office ahead of the March 15–17 presidential election, Boris Nadezhdin emerged as an unanticipated phenomenon in Russian politics.
Hundreds of people gathered in Russian cities to sign petitions supporting Nadezhdin so that he could be officially registered as a candidate by the Central Electoral Commission. This electoral process is frequently utilized by the Kremlin to filter out potential opponents of Putin.
His disqualification indicates that the Kremlin has chosen not to run Nadezhdin, even if it means further undermining the campaign’s validity.
In addition, Nadezhdin has succeeded in gaining the backing of numerous well-known Russian opposition figures, whose internal disputes have long kept them apart from the Kremlin. This is something that seems impossible in Russian politics. This includes those who back opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is imprisoned.
Nadezhdin had promised he would appeal to the country’s supreme court.