[News Figures] No Rival to Putin?…‘Nadezdin’ Blocked from Running in Presidential Election

Boris Nadezhdin, who was banned from running in the presidential election by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, was the only Russian presidential candidate to oppose the Ukraine war and was considered a rival to President Vladimir Putin.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Nadezhdin, who served as a member of the Russian State Duma from 1999 to 2003, is a writer and journalist and currently leads the Civic Initiative Party, an extraparliamentary party in Russia. The Civic Initiative Party was established in 2012 with the purpose of promoting democratization, the rule of law, human rights, market economy, and international cooperation in Russia. Although it currently holds no seats in the Russian Federal Assembly, it has publicly criticized President Putin’s ‘special military operation in Ukraine’ as a fatal mistake, drawing global attention.

Nadezhdin was also close to Boris Nemtsov, a Russian opposition politician who was assassinated in 2015, and has taken a political stance opposite to that of President Putin. While Putin emphasizes militarism and authoritarianism, Nadezhdin focuses on peace and civil society. In his presidential campaign declaration, he clearly stated that "not a single goal of the special military operation (Russia-Ukraine war) has been achieved" and that "Putin views the world from the past and is dragging Russia backward," expressing his intention to end the war with Ukraine if elected president. He also expressed his desire to amend Russia’s constitution and laws to guarantee civil society and press freedom and to release political prisoners currently incarcerated in Russia.

However, on the 8th, the Russian Central Election Commission rejected Nadezhdin’s presidential candidacy registration, citing numerous errors in the support signatures he submitted. Subsequently, on the 21st (local time), the Supreme Court upheld the election commission’s decision in the final ruling regarding Nadezhdin’s appeal, resulting in his failure to register as a presidential candidate. To register as a candidate from an extraparliamentary party in the Russian presidential election, more than 100,000 support signatures must be submitted, and the proportion of erroneous signatures must not exceed 5%.

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Russian presidential election scheduled for next month from the 15th to the 17th will be held without any candidates opposing the Ukraine war. This has led to analyses that President Putin’s fifth term is all but assured.