Presidential Candidate Nadezhdin Asks CEC To Delay Decision On His Registration Until Feb 10

Anti-war presidential candidate Boris Nadezhdin's headquarters said that the Central Election Commission (CEC) rejected 15.35% of the signatures in support of his candidacy, which would put him above the 5% threshold for registration. This was reported by Nadezhdin's representative Igor Artemyev via his Telegram channel and circulated by the Russian media.

• Nadezhdin pledged to make a last-ditch effort to fix the matter and, should the CEC decide to eliminate him from the presidential race, to appeal the decision in the Supreme Court. The CEC is expected to announce whether it will register Nadezhdin as an official candidate tomorrow.
• Novaya Gazeta Europa ran a report suggesting that the collection of signatures was conducted by the Civic Initiative party, which formally sponsors Nadezhdin's presidential bid, and the candidate's own team of volunteers. One source told the newspaper that the party's volunteers may have been responsible for submitting "forged and unverified" signatures to the CEC, albeit Civic Initiative leader Andrei Nechaev called the publication an "outright lie".
• Nadezhdin has just informed via his social media that he submitted a letter to the CEC asking them to delay the decision on the registration of his candidacy until February 10, which will allow his team to study the objections against the signatures.