Boris Nadezhdin was seen as the opposition's hope for an alternative to Putin. He was the only candidate who openly opposed Putin's war of aggression in Ukraine.
The politician wants to challenge the election commission's decision in the Supreme Court. The electoral commission said 9,147 of a sample of 60,000 signatures were declared invalid. That was around 15 percent with a maximum permissible value of 5 percent. After six years in office, according to the current constitution, he is allowed to run for the last time in 2030.