Russian anti-war presidential candidate Boris Nadezhdin says he has been banned from running against Vladimir Putin in the carefully managed presidential elections in March.
Earlier on Thursday the central election commission (CEC) said it had found “irregularities” in over 9,000 of more than 100,000 signatures of support submitted by Nadezhdin.
That figure was three times higher than the allowable 5% error rate and provides grounds for the commission to disqualify Nadezhdin.
CEC’s deputy chair Nikolai Bulaev said last week it had found 11 “dead souls” among the more than 100,000 signatures of support submitted by Nadezhdin.
The only thing I am surprised about is the fact he is still alive.
Why? Navalny is still alive. It’s not exactly hard to understand that making your prominent opposition figureheads martyrs is a dangerous game to play.
Navalny is only alive because Russia’s assassination attempt failed in spectacularly public fashion and it would be too obvious now. In this case it’s probably just not worth it if a clerical error can keep him in check. Jail or murder are never off the table under Putin’s regime if it starts to become the more expedient option.
I mean, the whole world saw the failed assassination attempt. There was no ambiguity about the circumstances of his poisoning. That happened during a period when Russians had full access to western media.
Guess that answers the question of whether he was a Kremlin plant.
Does it? Seems like you could just bar him to gain him legitimacy then let him run in the end to show fairness.
Can anyone explain to me how 9% is over three times more than 5% ?
Sure, just come right over here by this open window and all will be explained.
Same way 11 “dead souls” among the more than 100,000 signatures is an unexpected number given natural mortality not even counting open windows
Russian math works in mysterious ways
Considering Putin signed legislation a handful of years ago making him dictator for life, why are they even bothering to hold pretend elections?
Because even dictators don’t have power from “god”. Power comes from a group of people and autocracies differ from democracies by the size of this power-legitimizing group (I strongly recommend book “Dictator’s Handbook”).
In Russia this group consists of oligarchs and army generals. And those people need “normal” people to not be against government to work without complaining and revolting. One easy way to increase that satisfaction is by running huge propaganda camping and then organising theatre of choice.
Then high election result, makes people not revolt (cause they “chose” the ruler), reassures oligarchs and generals that it’s a good thing that you’re the leader and finally you can tell the international community that you’re a democracy.
So there’s a few reasons for elections in autocracies
I wonder if he actually thought he had a chance.
Like, does anyone really think they have any sort of possibility of being elected?
Against someone who wouldn’t hesitate to bomb entire apartment complexes to try and pin it on an opponent? Or who doesn’t hesitate to outright have people black bagged?
It still undermines Putin a bit, think that’s what the goal is
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In this interview he mentioned that he was waiting for someone more well-known to run for president and volunteer to work as an aide for them. But noone did and he realized that he should do it.
Im shocked. Shocked!
… Well not that shocked.
On the real though can their election potentially change their leadership or is it literally a waste of time?
ha. no. its performative to give the illusion to the braindead russians that they aren’t in a dictatorship
Imagine if Carlson asked putin about that. But no. He preferred licking Putin’s ass
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Wednesday’s decision was widely expected and comes after a working group of the CEC on Monday claimed it had found 15% of the supporters’ signatures he submitted to be invalid.
Nadezhdin, a veteran politician who has associated with Kremlin insiders and the opposition to Putin, has been waging a last-minute campaign to get on the ballot for the election, with thousands of Russians standing for hours in the freezing cold to add their signature in his support.
Nadezhdin said in his election manifesto that Putin had made a “fatal mistake by starting the special military operation” in Ukraine, the Kremlin’s preferred term for its invasion.
Russian state media ramped up its smear campaign against Nadezhdin in recent weeks, which underlined the Kremlin’s concern about the unexpected show of support for a politician who was previously unknown among the general population.
Another openly anti-war candidate, Yekaterina Duntsova, has already been disqualified by the elections commission, which refused to accept her nomination because of alleged errors in her paperwork, including spelling mistakes.
If he remains in power until then, his tenure will surpass even that of Joseph Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union for 29 years, making Putin the longest-serving Moscow leader since the Russian empire.
The original article contains 579 words, the summary contains 204 words. Saved 65%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Not a shock to anyone.
