Boris Nadezhdin’s presidential race is likely to end before it really begins.
On Monday, the Russian Central Election Commission’s (CEC) working group recommended Nadezhdin not be registered as a candidate.
The group found a 15.4 percent defect rate in Nadezhdin’s signatures supporting his candidacy, the candidate’s press service said. Only a maximum of 5 percent defect rate is permissible. The CEC will announce its final decision on Wednesday.
The likely disqualification would follow a pattern where opposition figures going up against Russian President Vladimir Putin face challenges over alleged signature forgery or discrepancies with often outdated government records.
Nadezhdin promised to challenge the CEC working group’s decision.
“We need to contest approximately 4,500 signatures out of the 9,209 declared invalid,” he wrote on his Telegram channel. “If the Central Election Commission denies my registration, I will appeal the decision in the Supreme Court,” he added.
CEC Deputy Chief Nikolai Bulayev announced Friday that the signatures of endorsement for one of the election candidates included “dead souls.”
“When we see dozens and dozens of people who are no longer alive leaving signatures, the question arises about the purity of ethical norms,” Bulayev told the state-run news agency TASS on Friday.
“If in my signature lists someone sees dead souls — well, my friends, these are not exactly questions for me. This is more a matter for the church, for an exorcist,” Nadezhdin wrote in response on Telegram.
Thousands of Russians queued outside Nadezhdin’s campaign headquarters in cities across the country and beyond to write a signature in his support. The signatures supporting the anti-war candidate were the most visible manifestation of public dissatisfaction in Russia since Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Russian election law requires potential candidates running from a party without representation in parliament to collect 100,000 signatures of endorsement. Nadezhdin gathered around 200,000 signatures and submitted 105,000 to the CEC — the maximum allowed by law.
Nadezhdin faced backlash from state-controlled media and pro-government Telegram channels. TV reports mentioned “shortcomings” in the signatures on the day he handed over his papers to the CEC. Propagandist Vladimir Solovyov stated that political exiles such as Maxim Katz and Mikhail Khodorkovsky supported Nadezhdin and even demanded the candidate Nadezhdin be investigated for “betraying the homeland.”
In his campaign platform, Nadezhdin promised that on the first day of his presidency, he would organize negotiations with Ukraine, and simultaneously release all political prisoners — such as Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin.
The Russian election is scheduled for March 15-17.
Sergey Goryashko is hosted at POLITICO under the EU-funded EU4FreeMedia residency program.