Does Boris Nadezhdin stand a chance against Russia's president Putin? | DW News

Russian presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin on Wednesday submitted more than 100,000 signatures from supporters needed to register as a candidate in the upcoming election. The Central Election Commission will check the authenticity of the signatures and must decide within 10 days whether he can run. "Millions of people" support his bid, the 60-year-old Kremlin critic said. "I don't understand how these signatures could not be accepted."

Nadezhdin has said he did not expect such a "crazy wave" of support. "People understand that their lives and the safety of their families is threatened by what Putin is doing," he said. Should the Central Election Commission reject his bid, he told supporters he is prepared to call for mass protests in 150 cities across the country. Nadezhdin's call to end the war in Ukraine has also energised the Russian opposition.

Yekatarina Duntsova was the first to express her support for Nadezhdin's nomination. Her endorsement came after the Central Election Commission excluded her from the race, citing "errors in the documents" submitted. She underscored that Nadezhdin was the only anti-war candidate. The wife of imprisoned opposition politician Alexei Navalny, Yuliya Navalnaya, signed her name in support of Nadezhdin. Unlike Navalny, who is serving 19 years in prison, Nadezhdin has not faced any criminal charges for his statements yet.

Putin expected to win
"We don't see him as a rival," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week. The vote's outcome is widely seen as a foregone conclusion, with incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin all but certain to win. Putin registered as a candidate for the March 15-17 election earlier this week, the country's Central Election Commission said. He has chosen to run as an independent rather than as the candidate of the ruling United Russia party and submitted 315,000 signatures in support of his candidacy. Nadezhdin said earlier this month that the country would be able to afford to spend more on its citizens if it was not pouring so much money into the military.

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Just let Boris call it a Special Military Operation. That is a silly criticism. He is trying to avoid going to prison, not giving Putin a reason to put him there without making something up.

[HKim]

About the same chance as Prigozhin living a fruitful life after the attempted coup.

[luisangel]

"He has some critics criticizing him for calling it a Special military operation" would you rather have him break the law by calling it a war? He'll end up in the same prison cell as Navalny.

[remlapwc]

If he is not a putin stooge then his life or health are in grave danger.

[James-]

Brave man, i wish him the best of luck❤️

[altrfryd]

As long as he avoids any windows at all cost he should be fine I think

[meanderingbird]

Bless those ordinary Russians who are voting for peace.
They have that desire in common with all normal people.

[MausTheGerman]

The more realistic the presidency becomes for him, the higher the likelihood that he will suddenly suffer a mysterious death.

[floridaoutdooradventures]

Before you know it, he will be accused of something and be gone...

[Spaceballz]

Boris Nadezhdin has a better chance of beating gravity than Putin

[CheeseNugget]

Interesting fact: His last name, Nadezhdin literally means Hopeful in Russian

[bigcook]

2:25 Whats about Maxim Katz who among the first called his audience to go and leave their signatures? He literally posted about it every day on his youtube channel. According to a poll from a line to leave signatures posted on russian twitter, every 3rd signature in the polled line was the result of his calls.

[SainyaHokage]

He will achieve what Putin allows him to achieve...

[yezchj]

He has the right mindset but he's a dead many walking by the window

[hob_channel]

2:41 – People, are you kidding? Nadezhdin CANNOT call the war in Ukraine a war, because in Russia it is PROHIBITED BY LAW, and those who violate it are sent to prison

[strikezonefishingadventures]

If this man was a serious contender, Putin would have had him arrested and jailed on some trumped up charges. Although, that could still happen.

[harrymaciolek]

No, but he has a good chance of falling out of a window. Though he could be a Judas goat to identify the opposition for prison or deployment.

[thegreatdane]

my guess is that he is allowed to run, because putin wants to know the mood of the people. While the "official" result of the election will obviously be 95% of the votes to putin, the real result could tell putin how secure his regime is.

[pashakoshkin]

Sounds so pleasant when a journalist pronounces russian names correctly :)

[ColinUnderwood]

I have a feeling he will learn to fly out of a 3rd floor building!