But Nadezhdin's ban signals the Kremlin's shift from democracy to a regime that Russian analysts describe as authoritarian, bordering on totalitarianism, in which manipulated elections are used to provide a thin veneer of legitimacy to the 71-year-old president, without threatening his office. power.
The Russian authorities had previously banned any candidate who posed a real threat to Putin, such as imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and accepted only a carefully selected group of candidates who cooperate with the regime.
Three other candidates remain, but they are known to have had few disagreements with the president and have a history of cooperation with the Kremlin. They are not expected to pose a major challenge to Putin.
“Participating in the 2024 presidential elections is the most important political decision of my life. “I will not back down from my intentions,” Nadezhdin said, vowing to appeal the decision in court, a move unlikely to lead to the ban being overturned given the highly politicized nature of the court system.
The popularity of Nadezhdin's candidacy caught the Kremlin by surprise when long lines formed outside his election offices across Russia, indicating the depth of discontent over the war against Ukraine and other issues.
Nadezhdin, 60, is a physicist and opposition politician who has often appeared on state television criticizing the war, but he is not as well known as other major opposition figures such as Navalny.
In a message on Telegram, Nadezhdin urged his supporters not to give up.
“Something had happened that many people could not believe: citizens felt the possibility of change in Russia,” he wrote.
Under Russian electoral law, a candidate must collect more than 100,000 signatures across the country to qualify. Nadezhdin submitted nearly 105,000 applications, but the Election Commission rejected more than 9,100 of them, or 8.7 percent. To qualify, no more than 5 percent can be voided.
The committee claimed that the names of 11 dead people were found among his signatures, and said that this distorted his entire list.
Nadezhdin's team responded that it was the commission's automated software that misread the handwritten addresses of some signatories and mistakenly excluded them.
“You are not denying me. You are denying tens of millions of people who hope for change,” Nadezhdin said after the decision. “There are tens of millions of people standing here who would have voted for me. I am in second place after Putin. “I got double digits in the polls, and you're telling me 11 dead.”
Nadezhdin said he collected more than 200,000 signatures, not all of which were submitted. “We conducted the assembly process with all frankness and frankness. The queues in front of our headquarters and assembly points were seen by the whole world.”
While the anti-war candidate does not appear to have the support needed to defeat Putin, a large protest vote for him and against the war would sour the Kremlin and could create internal divisions and unease over an increasingly unpopular, heavy-duty, and failed war. Obvious benefits for ordinary Russians.
A poll conducted by the independent pollster Levada in October showed that 55% want peace talks, compared to 38% who want Russia to continue fighting.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Nadezhdin was barred from running because of “a large number of errors in signatures and invalidation of a large number of signatures.”
“So an important criterion is not met here. So I have nothing to comment on. The Central Election Commission strictly follows the rules that are established for the candidate.
In December, authorities banned another anti-war candidate, former TV journalist Yekaterina Dontsova, from running in the elections, after her signatures were rejected.
Critics have pointed to a number of other flaws in the election that could open up the possibility of fraud. Voting will take place over three days, with a mysterious electronic voting system poised to play a central role for the first time.
The Kremlin controls Russian media, and opposition activists and war critics have been imprisoned. Employees of Russian state-owned companies are routinely asked to show their bosses screenshots or photos of their mobile phones to prove they voted and for whom.
Natalia Abakumova in Riga, Latvia contributed to this report
