Putin challenger faces hurdle

An election official claims that some signatures required to register Nadezhdin as a presidential candidate were from dead people.

Russian election officials hinted Friday of barring Boris Nadezhdin from registering as challenger of President Vladimir Putin in the upcoming presidential election.

On Wednesday, Nadezhdin, 60, handed in more than the 100,000 required signatures for the registration to the Central Election Commission.

The CEC’s deputy chairman, Nikolay Bulayev, summoned Nadezhdin and another candidate — Communist Sergei Malinkovich — to appear on Monday before the commission, where officials would show them the “results of the checking procedure.”

Bulayev questioned the signatures gathered by Nadezhdin saying, “When we see dozens of people who are no longer on this Earth and they add a signature, that poses question about the ethical standards being used... including by the person collecting them.”

Nadezhdin — who has spent weeks criticizing President Putin and the almost two-year Ukraine offensive — dismissed the commission’s accusations.

“We are all more alive than the living,” he said, posting photographs on Telegram of people queueing to submit signatures.

Nadezhdin — who has spent weeks criticizing President Putin and the almost two-year Ukraine offensive — dismissed the commission’s accusations.

He alluded to the Russian literature classic “Dead Souls” to mock election officials.

“If someone sees dead souls in my signature lists, well, friends, these questions should not be addressed to me. It’s more for the church or exorcists,” he said.

Political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya said the election commission’s comments were a sign Nadezhdin would not be allowed to stand.

“The Kremlin has started to prepare the public for the decision of barring Nadezhdin,” she said on Telegram.

In a post earlier on Friday, Nadezhdin repeated that he would take the election commission to court if it barred him from running.

Many have been surprised that he has been allowed to progress this far in the voting process.

In an interview to AFP last month, he said Putin’s decision to launch the Ukraine offensive in 2022 had been “catastrophic.”

Nadezhdin has spent weeks criticizing Putin and the Kremlin’s military offensive in Ukraine, which is nearly into its third year.

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