Fraud allegations against Nadezhdin
Authorities doubt Putin opponent’s election application
February 2, 2024, 7:13 p.m
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Boris Nadezhdin wants to challenge Vladimir Putin in the upcoming presidential elections in Russia. But now the Russian authorities are raising doubts about the Kremlin opponent’s election documents.
The Russian electoral authorities say they have found irregularities in war opponent Boris Nadezhdin’s application to run in the presidential election. He submitted 105,000 signatures from supporters and, according to his own statements, met the requirements. However, the chairman of the relevant commission, Nikolai Bulayev, said during a televised meeting that some of the signatures came from dead people. Some errors are to be expected. In dozens of cases, however, the question arises about the ethical standards when collecting signatures. “And the candidate is directly involved in some way.”
Nadezhdin told his followers on Telegram that, like him, they were “the liveliest of the living.” Alluding to Nikolai Gogol’s novel of the same name, he joked: “If someone imagines that they see ‘dead souls’ in my signature lists – well, friends, that’s not a question for me. That’s more for the church or for an exorcist .” In the novel, the bureaucracy surrounding deceased serfs is exploited for fraud.
In fact, Nadezhdin was the only candidate for whom Russians publicly lined up to sign for him and his candidacy. As a party-nominated candidate, Nadezhdin had to collect 100,000 signatures in at least 40 Russian regions to run in the March 15-17 election. According to his own statements, his team collected twice the required signatures.
Putin’s victory is considered certain. However, Nadezhdin surprised some observers with his sharp criticism of what the government called a “special military operation” war against Ukraine. Recently, after numerous heating failures in the cold winter, he criticized the fact that Russia could afford to spend more on its citizens if it did not invest so much money in the military. His outspoken comments about the war have fueled speculation that he could be barred from running or forced to resign, citing a technicality.