Boris Nedzhdin at the offices of the Election Commission of Russia, February 8, 2024/Reuters
The Russian presidential candidate who opposes the war in Ukraine, Boris Nezhdin, said today (Thursday) that the Central Election Commission disqualified him from next month's elections.
He said he would appeal the committee's decision to the Supreme Court, which was expected given the Kremlin's control over it and its claims that it found "flaws" in the collection of Nadezhdin's signatures.
Incumbent President Vladimir Putin is expected to win easily, and few believed that the regime would allow Nezhdin to face him and echo the opposition to the continuation of the war in Ukraine.
He said that he did not agree with the decision of the election commission, which said that some of the names he collected were of "dead people", and promised not to give up.
"I collected more than 200,000 signatures across Russia. We collected openly and honestly, the queues at our headquarters and collection points were watched by the whole world," said Nedzhdin.
"Participating in the presidential elections in 2024 is the most important political decision of my life. I am not giving up my intentions."
The 60-year-old Nadezhdin is one of the few government critics whose voice has been heard on the popular talk shows on state television since the invasion on February 24, 2022. Although his run for the presidency was viewed with suspicion by some opposition figures - who found it hard to believe that such a fierce critic of Putin could have reached Here without the Kremlin turning a blind eye - its prominent leader Alexei Navalny backed the campaign of Nezheddin Matteo in a prison in the Arctic Circle.
He described the war in Ukraine as a "fatal mistake" and promised to try and end it through negotiations.
"My first task will be to stop the conflict with Ukraine, and then to restore normal relations between Russia and the West," he said last month in an interview with the BBC network, although he admitted that he must be realistic about his chances of success.
Nejedin was not the only one who hoped to run in the Russian presidential elections, which will be held between March 15 and 17, on a platform opposing the war in Ukraine, in which hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers were killed and wounded.
In December, former journalist and independent politician Yekaterina Dantsova was disqualified from running by the Election Commission, claiming that errors had been found in her registration.
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