Anti-War Presidential Candidate Nadezhdin Submits Signatures To Election Commission

Russian news agencies reported that anti-war candidate Boris Nadezhdin submitted the paperwork to register for the upcoming presidential election. The Central Election Commission (CEC) now has 10 days to decide whether to review the signatures in support of Nadzhdin's presidential bid and decide whether to admit him.

• Four candidates have already been registered for the poll so far. Apart from incumbent President Vladimir Putin, the CEC accepted the candidacies of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia's Leonid Slutsky, New People party's Vladislav Davankov and the Communist Party's Nikolay Kharitonov. All are seen as "systemic" opposition candidates, posing no real challenge to the sitting President.
• Several opposition candidates have been immediately rejected by the CEC on various procedural grounds. The list includes local journalist Yekaterina Duntsova, regional politician Vladimir Mikhailov, far-right former soldier Ivan Otrakovsky and independent politician Aleksandra Tishchenko.
• Nadezhdin's status in the Russian political ecosystem is unclear. Some see him as a genuinely independent critic of the war mounting a challenge to Putin; others believe his presidential bid has so far been tolerated as a no-threat; and some see him as yet another "spoiler candidate," whose candidacy has been fully orchestrated by the Kremlin. However, major Russian opposition figures have started to rally behind Nadezhdin, his candidacy being the only anti-war game in town.
• The purpose of fielding "spoiler candidates" is to boost turnout and increase the perceived legitimacy of the election. Russian media outlets reported that the Kremlin seeks to achieve a turnout of around 70% and support for Putin of around 80%. The former goal could be difficult to achieve if all candidates were openly supportive of the current President, offering no real alternatives for disillusioned voters.