Kremlin says anti-war presidential candidate Nadezhdin is not a serious rival to Putin

On Wednesday, the Kremlin said that it did not view former opposition legislator Boris Nadezhdin—who is running for president on an anti-war platform—as a credible opponent of President Vladimir Putin. In order to be officially registered as a contender in the March 15–17 presidential election, 60-year-old Nadezhdin is presently attempting to gather 100,000 signatures by the end of January. Over the past several days, a number of Russians who disagree with Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine have lined up to back him. When asked on Wednesday if Nadezhdin was a rival who posed a political threat to Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Not at all, we don’t see him as a rival. Any citizen has the right to run for president if they meet a number of conditions.” Putin, in power as either president or prime minister since the end of 1999 and in control of all the state’s levers, is widely expected to win another six-year term in March. Nadezhdin’s supporters say he has passed the 100,000 siganture mark, garnering considerable support in Moscow and St Petersburg, but still needs more from other parts of Russia because the signatures need to be spread across at least 40 regions of the world’s largest country. The Kremlin says most Russians back what it casts as Moscow’s quest to ensure its own security in Ukraine.