Putin challenger Boris Nadezhdin has hit a speed bump in his battle to be allowed to stand in the Russian presidential election in March.
The opposition politician, who is openly critical of both Putin and the war in Ukraine, gathered over 100,000 signatures for his candidacy in a very short time.
There was a lot of tension in advance about whether the Electoral Commission was actually going to approve his candidacy, despite the fact that he has managed to collect the votes he needs.
Encounters resistance
Now it may look like the campaign is facing resistance.
– We see dozens of signatures from dead people, which casts doubt on the ethics of those who collect signatures, says Deputy Director of Russia’s Electoral Commission, Nikolay Bulayev, in a comment to state-controlled Russian media on Friday.
The Electoral Commission is still working on verifying the signatures, Bulajev tells the state media. Many have said in advance that they doubt that he will be allowed to run. Among them is Russia expert Inna Sangadzhieva in an interview with Dagbladet.
On her Telegram account, Nadezhdin dismisses the statements of Bulajev.
– If someone sees dead souls on my signature lists, it’s not me they should be talking to. Then they have to go to church, or to an exorcist, he writes in a recent post.
Russian opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin says something that has not been said on state television since the war began, British intelligence claims. Video: NTV, Russian Media Monitor, Twitter. Reporter: Håvard TL Knutsen. view more
Broke the silence
For a long time, there was relative silence from the Kremlin and the Putin camp around Nadezhdin’s campaign, apart from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denying to the press that Nadezhdin was a real contender.
But after several weeks of silence from state television, they finally broke the silence this week, writes the independent Russian online newspaper Meduza, which is now run in exile from Lithuania.
According to the newspaper, Vladimir Solovyov, one of Putin’s leading TV propagandists, suggested in a TV broadcast that Ukrainian intelligence was among those behind Nadezhdin’s campaign.
– Boris is just an unhappy man of my age, who apparently decided to make money, or something like that. I feel sorry for him. The fool does not understand that he is preparing not to become president, but to be prosecuted for treason against the motherland, said Solovyov.
He calls Nadezhdin “the candidate for Ukrainian Nazis”.
Boris Håp wants peace in Russia
Surprises
Very few believe that Nadezhdin will win any presidential election. Nevertheless, experts are surprised by how many have dared to take to the streets and sign his campaign.
In today’s Russia, it is anything but risk-free to take a stand against Putin and the war in Ukraine, even for ordinary people.
Images of large queues outside Russian polling stations have spread widely since Nadezhdin announced her candidacy last Christmas. Many have been surprised that Nadezhdin has been allowed by the Russian authorities to allow the movement behind him to grow so large at all.
– I think they slept in class. Nadezhdin started the mobilization of his team just before New Year’s Eve. Most people in the mainstream political environment were on holiday. He has a large network from his time as a politician, and has had the opportunity to build the team quickly, said Russia expert Inna Sangadzhieva to Dagbladet in January.
2024-02-04 19:38:48
#Prosecutor #dead #people
