Exclusion of Nadezhdin – 200,000 signatures against the war were too many – News

More than 9,000 invalid signatures for Boris Nadezhdin’s presidential candidacy have been found, Russia’s Central Election Commission announced on Thursday afternoon. It was said that among the signatories were eleven people who had been dead for a long time. That is why Nadezhdin will not be allowed to take part in the elections in March.

Many saw this outcome coming – not least because the election authority began signaling days ago that Nadezhdin’s documents were incorrect. But the economically liberal opposition politician’s candidacy probably had no chance from the moment he became a beacon of hope in Russia: for the thousands of war opponents who lined up in the cold in the last few weeks to submit their signatures for him.

200,000 signatures for the opposition candidate

Nadezhdin was not a star in the opposition. He was more of a whipping boy who was willing to appear on the state propaganda programs in order to be destroyed by the pro-regime presenters. This is one of the reasons why the suspicion remained until the end that he was only playing the role of a war opponent in the elections – a fig leaf for Putin’s system.

That didn’t matter to his supporters: Because Nadezhdin opposed the war, he offered Russians critical of the Kremlin a chance to come out of cover. Collecting signatures for his candidacy was a way to publicly demonstrate an anti-war stance without risking immediate repression.

In just a few weeks, 200,000 people signed for Nadezhdin. This was not in the Kremlin’s interest, regardless of whether Nadezhdin was a fake candidate or not. Vladimir Putin enjoys broad popular support and the regime has a firm grip on the electoral system. But the sudden rebellion of a critical and not insignificant minority was inconvenient.

Election authority typo

Some of the disqualified signatures that his campaign published point to a short-term action to stop Nadezhdin. For example, signatories were excluded due to typographical errors made by the electoral authority itself. Nadezhdin wants to challenge the authority’s decision.

Some interpret his exclusion as a sign of the regime’s fear of popular discontent. But for others, the Nadezhdin case is more discouraging. Because it shows once again that the Kremlin can nip any resistance in the bud.