As of: January 23, 2024, 11:56 a.m
By: Bettina Menzel
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The presidential elections in Russia will take place in March.
An opposition politician is collecting plenty of signatures for his candidacy - but Putin's re-election is considered certain.
Moscow – Russian opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin recently described the Ukraine war as a “fatal mistake”.
The former Duma deputy wants to challenge Russian President Vladimir Putin in the presidential election in Russia in March - and would therefore be the only real opposing candidate.
However, Nadezhdin must collect 100,000 signatures by the end of January in order to be able to stand for election.
Hundreds of people recently lined up in front of his campaign office in St. Petersburg to support his candidacy.
But what chances does Nadezhdin really have?
Presidential elections in Russia: People line up to support Nadezhdin
Few opposition politicians remain in Russia: Alexei Navalny is in prison, other Putin critics such as Boris Nemtsov were murdered.
Boris Nadezhdin was considered a close confidant of Nemtsov and recently caused a stir with his criticism of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.
Politicians who made similar statements have already had to leave the country or been imprisoned.
A law in Russia stipulates prison sentences of up to ten years for critical statements about the war.
Now 60-year-old Nadezhdin wants to run as a “peace candidate” in the presidential elections.
His chances of running for office are apparently good: by Monday evening (January 22nd), Nadezhdin had already collected almost 85,000 of the 100,000 necessary signatures.
Russian presidential candidate Boris Nadezhdin at a press conference on January 14, 2024 in St. Petersburg.
© IMAGO/Artem Priakhin / SOPA Images
Long queues formed in front of the opposing candidate's campaign office in St. Petersburg on Monday, as footage on Telegram shows.
For many people in Russia, signing for Nadezhdin is a way to express “their dissatisfaction” “without having to be afraid of being arrested or fired,” said 19-year-old student Ivan Semyonov to the AFP news
agency
.
The opposing candidate also received support from other opposition figures, such as the exiled activist Maxim Katz and Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption foundation.
A recent look at Nadezhdin's website on Tuesday morning showed that over 101,000 signatures had already been collected.
The candidate had set his target at 150,000, which means that around 48,000 signatories were still missing (as of January 23, 2024, at 11:30 a.m.).
Presidential elections in Russia: Nadezhdin a real opponent or a hopeless opponent?
Even if Nadezhdin obtains the required signatures, Kremlin leader Putin could still thwart his plans and prevent him from taking part in the presidential elections.
Russia's Central Election Commission is unlikely to approve Nadezhdin's candidacy, political analyst Fedor Karsheninnikov told independent Russian media
Meduza
.
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People queue outside candidate Boris Nadezhdin's campaign office in St. Petersburg to support his nomination (pictured January 21, 2024).
© IMAGO/Artem Priakhin / SOPA Images
The candidate was not fired immediately “because he seemed completely hopeless.
Given all the fuss about him, involving figures detested by the Kremlin, I see no reason why they would register him,” Karsheninnikov wrote on Telegram.
The analyst is “85 percent” sure that the Kremlin will take Nadezhdin out of the race – “no matter how many signatures there are or how high quality they are.”
An anonymous source close to the Kremlin also told
Meduza
that there will be no anti-war candidate in the 2024 elections.
The electoral system in Russia is manipulated anyway, and the Kremlin leader is certain of victory.
The long-time leader of the Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, and the leader of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, Leonid Slutski, are considered possible candidates for the elections, although they are not real opposition members.
Rather, they are integrated into a system that is intended to give the appearance of democracy without posing a real threat to Putin, critics said.
The Kremlin leader has been at the head of Russia since December 31, 1999.
In 2021, a historic constitutional reform was passed that will allow Putin to rule until 2036.