Russia: Vladimir Putin's anti-war opponent barred from presidential polls

Boris Nadezhdin, a lawmaker for peace, lost his unexpected attempt to unseat President Vladimir Putin from the Kremlin on Thursday when the election board in Russia barred him from running in the presidential election scheduled for next month. Putin, who has ruled for more than 20 years, is expected to win a second six-year term in the election scheduled for March 15–17. All significant opposition figures are currently prohibited from participating. Russia’s Central Election Commission declared after a meeting in Moscow on Thursday that it had decided to “refuse to register Boris Nadezhdin as a candidate in the presidential election”. Nadezhdin vehemently denounced the widely anticipated ruling and vowed to appeal to the Russian Supreme Court. There will only be three additional contenders, all of whom are supported by the Kremlin and come from formal opposition parties. Amidst the exile or imprisonment of prominent opposition activists, he pledged to persist in his struggle against Putin. “Sooner or later I will be president of the Russian Federation,” he told a press conference. “I wish it would be sooner.” More over 9,000 of the 105,000 signatures that Nadezhdin received in support of his candidacies, above the allowed five percent mistake rate, had errors, according to election officials. Nadezhdin’s side claimed prior to the ruling that the commission’s purported “errors” included little mistakes that occurred when handwritten submissions were entered into its computers. However, with the Kremlin having complete control over elections, his odds of winning an appeal are slim to none. The 60-year-old caught the Kremlin off guard last month when he called for an end to Russia’s military offensive into Ukraine, drawing large crowds of Russians nationwide to back his candidacy. Pictures showing lengthy lines of people awaiting his nomination documents shattered the official narrative portraying Russian society as united behind Putin’s campaign against Ukraine. Alleged administrative violations and bureaucratic procedures have been used by Russian authorities in the past to prevent opposition candidates from appearing on ballots. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for Putin, stated on Thursday that the electoral commission “clearly follows the rules that are set for candidates.” He was supported by the often divided opposition in Russia, which ranged from exiled former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky to jailed opponent of the Kremlin Alexei Navalny, arguing that backing Nadezhdin was a legitimate and secure way to express disapproval of the Kremlin. Russia has increased its already severe restrictions against public criticism and imprisoned numerous people for speaking out against its engagement since launching soldiers into Ukraine in February 2022. (With agency inputs)