Putin has 15 opponents so far in bid for fifth term as President

Sixteen candidates have submitted their candidacy for Russia’s upcoming presidential election next year, officials announced on Wednesday. The election is widely anticipated to secure a fifth term for Vladimir Putin. Over the years, Moscow has consistently marginalized opposition figures from participating in elections and political activities. This crackdown intensified following the Kremlin’s directive to deploy Russian troops into Ukraine in 2022. “So far, we have received applications from 16 candidates for the presidential election,” the chairman of the Central Elections Commission (CEC) Ella Pamfilova was cited as saying by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. During a meeting with military veterans, Putin confirmed this month that he would join the election scheduled for next year over three days beginning March 15. The CEC said it would also hold the ballot in four Ukrainian regions partially occupied by Russian forces and in the Crimean peninsula, annexed from Kyiv in 2014. The Kremlin-friendly Liberal Democratic Party of Russia this week nominated a former negotiator for the Ukraine conflict, Leonid Slutsky, as a candidate. He said his candidacy would not “take away votes” from Putin. Candidates must file applications to run in the March vote by December 27, election rules state, after which they will be required to gather thousands of signatures from supporters to secure a place on the ballot. Igor Girkin, a hardline nationalist turned Kremlin critic who is in detention awaiting trial on extremism charges, said he wanted to challenge Putin. Jailed opposition figure, Alexei Navalny was barred from running in elections in 2018, due to an old fraud charge that his allies said was politically motivated. With inputs from AFP.