Russians sign a petition to nominate Boris Nadezhdin as a presidential candidate.
Thousands of Russians have been queuing in freezing temperatures since Monday to register politician Boris Nadezhdin as a presidential candidate. He officially opposes the war in Ukraine and wants to challenge Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
Note that 71-year-old Putin will run for a fifth term without real opposition, while in parallel any criticism of the Kremlin is suppressed in Russia. However, on January 20, Russians across the country and abroad began collecting signatures for Nadezhdin to become an official candidate in the March 17 presidential election.
Peace candidate
According to Russian election law, Nadezhdin must collect 100,000 signatures by the end of January to be allowed to participate in the elections. The former deputy, who is part of Russia’s liberal opposition and movements associated with the authorities, began to be popularly called a candidate from “peace”.
Nadezhdin, 60, is running as a “principled opponent of the current president’s policies,” adding that he is against the “unjust use of military force against other countries” and for “cooperation with Western countries.” In addition, he called Putin’s decision to send troops to Ukraine in February 2022 a “fatal mistake.”
“None of the stated goals of the special military operation (as the war in Ukraine is called in Russia) has been achieved,” his online manifesto said.
“Putin is looking at the world from the past and dragging Russia into the past,” his statement said.
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At the same time, all other candidates participating in the elections supported the Kremlin’s war.
Why the Russians support Nadezhdin
Some of those who lined up to support Nadezhdin said they saw him as a unifying candidate who offered an alternative vision for Russia. One of the supporters explained to Western journalists that he decided to leave his signature because “the candidate promised to end the war if he was elected.”
“This is a very important reason to support him,” said the man, who wished to remain anonymous because of the risk of prosecution for anti-war statements.
“The state propaganda says that everyone is happy with the current situation in Russia, but look how many people are here,” added a Nadezhdin supporter.
Another man said he came to the Russian capital from the Vologda region because he was tired of the “same political landscape” in Russia for years.
“I’m 24 years old and I don’t see anyone except Putin or Medvedev. I want change,” he said.
Another fan from the Moscow region added that he was “delighted” to see the queues of “like-minded people.”
Support from the opposition
Within 24 hours, Nadezhdin collected more than 100 thousand voter signatures to nominate a candidate for the presidential election in the Russian Federation. Queues of his fans were seen in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Ufa. Nadezhdin also opened headquarters in Armenia, Georgia, Serbia and Israel.
Several Russian opposition figures, including associates of Alexei Navalny, as well as Mikhail Khodorkovsky and politician Maxim Kats, expressed their support for Nadezhdin.
Ekaterina Duntsova, who is a deputy of the Rzhev City Duma in the Tver region and applied to participate in the elections but was suspended due to alleged errors in documents last month, also called on her supporters to leave signatures for the politician.
A tame candidate?
However, in reality, Nadezhdin may be a weak Kremlin candidate, according to the media. So, in a conversation with the publication Meduza, an acquaintance of Nadezhdin said last fall that the politician was offered to run for president in the Putin administration – while the candidate himself rejected it.
The opposition publication Verstka in mid-January, citing sources in the presidential administration, also claimed that Nadezhdin was an agreed candidate, but after he started speaking out against Putin, the Kremlin “refused to support him.”
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.