Russians queue to register candidate opposed to Ukraine offensive
Jan 23, 2024
Under Russian electoral law, Nadezhdin needs 100,000 signatures by the end of January to be allowed to run. His website said he had garnered almost 85,000 on Monday evening.
Boris Nadezhdin, the Civic Initiative Party presidential hopeful, holds a press conference in Saint Petersburg on January 14, 2024. (Photos by AFP)
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@New Vision
______________________ People queue to the campaign headquarters of Boris Nadezhdin, the Civic Initiative Party presidential candidate, to put their signatures in his support in Moscow on January 22, 2024. The 2024 presidential election will be held over a three-day period from March
Hundreds of Muscovites queued on Monday in freezing temperatures to register politician Boris Nadezhdin, who has opposed the Ukraine offensive, to challenge President Vladimir Putin at the ballot box.
Putin, 71, will run for a fifth Kremlin term with no real opposition, with Russia banning criticism of the almost two-year military campaign in Ukraine.
However, since Saturday thousands of Russians across the country and abroad have gathered signatures supporting Nadezhdin running as an official candidate in the March presidential election.
Under Russian electoral law, Nadezhdin needs 100,000 signatures by the end of January to be allowed to run. His website said he had garnered almost 85,000 on Monday evening.
The former lawmaker -- who has been part of both Russia's liberal opposition and movements aligned with the authorities -- has emerged as the candidate for "peace."
Nadezhdin, 60, has carefully spoken out "for peace" and called Putin's decision to send troops to Ukraine in February 2022 a "fatal mistake."
"Not a single one of the proclaimed aims of the special military operation (in Ukraine) has been fulfilled," his online manifesto says.
"Putin sees the world from the past and is dragging Russia into the past," the manifesto reads.
The statements mark extremely rare criticism inside Russia, where critics have been handed jail terms for publicly expressed opposition to the president.
All the other candidates running in the vote have come out in support of the Kremlin's offensive.
Some of those in the queue to give their support to Nadezhdin said they saw him as the only candidate offering an alternative point of view for Russia.
Ivan Semyonov, a 19-year-old biotechnology student, joined the crowds to register Nadezdhin after seeing what he called "emotional images" of the queues on social media.
"For many people, this is an opportunity to express your disagreement with what is happening, without worrying about being arrested," he said.
Natalia Avdeyeva, a nurse from the Siberian city of Omsk who was visiting Moscow, said she supported Nadezhdin "because he is the only person that is against the special military operation."
"I want there to be some kind of alternative," the 53-year-old said.
Nadezhdin once had a seat in Russia's lower house of parliament, the Duma.
He used to be close to Boris Nemtsov, the Russian liberal opposition assassinated in 2015, before moving into political circles more closely aligned with the Kremlin.
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