Russia: Anti-war politician excluded from upcoming presidential election
9:50 AM EST, February 9, 2024
The presidential elections in Russia will be held between the 15th and 17th of March this year, but they are mere fiction.
The only anti-war candidate - Boris Nadezhdin, has been excluded from the presidential election. The Central Election Commission claims he has not collected enough signatures to be able to participate.
According to Russian law, every candidate who wants to participate in the election must gather at least 100,000 signatures, while the CEC claims Nadezhdin gathered only 95,000. The politician claims he collected at least 105,000.
Who is Boris Nadezhdin
Boris Nadezhdin is a Russian oppositionist and former member of the Russian parliament from 1999 to 2003. He was also a very close political partner of Boris Nemtsov, who was most probably murdered by the FSB (Russian intelligence services).
He is the only important Russian politician who openly rejects the idea of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and openly speaks against the war. Against all odds, he intended to take part in the presidential election.
Russian elections - mere formality
It is commonly known that elections in Russia are pure fiction. In 2020, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin changed the Russian constitution to give himself the unlimited possibility of taking part in the election. Before the amendment, he needed to swap his chair with his closest protege - Dmitry Medvedev, who was the president of Russia from 2008 to 2012.
