Boris Nadezhdin, the only remaining anti-war presidential hopeful, said on February 8 that Russia's Central Election Commission (TsIK) refused to register him for an upcoming election set up to hand incumbent Vladimir Putin another six-year term.
The TsIK ruled on February 8 that only 95,587 signatures collected by Nadezhdin's supporters were valid, while 100,000 signatures must be collected to register a presidential candidate. Although Nadezhdin said he had collected far more signatures then the 100,000 threshold needed for a candidate nominated by a political party, the commission only accepts a maximum of 105,000 for review.
The TsIK, which routinely refuses to register would-be opposition candidates on the pretext that they submitted an insufficient number of valid signatures, thus making the entire signature process a kind of filter against unwelcome developments, previously said it had found "flaws" in more than 15 percent of the support signatures in Nadezhdin's application, well above the 5 percent limit.
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Anti-War Putin Challenger Nadezhdin Vows To Appeal Election Ban
The Uzbekistan-born 60-year-old academic and former lawmaker, who was proposed as a presidential candidate by the Civic Platform party, vowed to appeal the decision all the way to the Supreme Court.
"I do not agree with the decision of the Central Election Commission. I collected more than 200,000 signatures across Russia. We conducted the collection openly and honestly -- the whole world watched the lines at our headquarters and collection stations," Nadezhdin wrote on Telegram.
"Running for president in 2024 is the most important political decision of my life. I will not retreat from my intentions. I will appeal the decision of the Central Election Commission at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation."
WATCH: In an interview with Current Time before the Russian election commission's decision, Boris Nadezhdin discussed his presidential bid and his fight to get on the ballot.
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Putin Opponent Nadezhdin Awaits Decision On Presidential Election Bid
Russian elections are tightly controlled by the Kremlin and are neither free nor fair but are viewed by the government as necessary to convey a sense of legitimacy. They are mangled by the exclusion of opposition candidates, voter intimidation, ballot stuffing, and other means of manipulation.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin's tight grip on politics, media, law enforcement, and other levers nationwide means Putin, who has ruled Russia as president or prime minister since 1999, is certain to win, barring a very big, unexpected development.
But the surprising show of support for the little-known Nadezhdin, whose platform says the invasion of Ukraine was a "fatal mistake" and accuses Putin of dragging Russia into the past instead of building a sustainable future, is complicating the Kremlin's more aggressive ambition of boosting the perception of Putin's legitimacy.
Nadezhdin has been supported by associates of imprisoned opposition politician Aleksei Navalny and self-exiled opposition figures Maksim Kats and Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Those who were expected to be Putin's main challengers currently are either incarcerated or have fled the country, fearing for their safety.
In mid-November, Putin signed into law a bill on amendments to legislation on presidential elections that restricts coverage of the poll, while also giving the TsIK the right to change the election procedure in territories where martial law has been introduced.