"Dead" signatures

Kremlin critic threatened with exclusion from election

Boris Nadezhdin wants to run against Vladimir Putin in the presidential election.(Bild: APA/AFP/Vera Savina)

Two days after Kremlin critic Boris Nadezhdin submitted the required number of declarations of support for the presidential election in Russia, the electoral authorities say they have now discovered irregularities in the opposition candidate's application. The chairman of the responsible commission explained on Friday during a televised meeting that some of the signatures came from dead people. 

Some errors were to be expected. In dozens of cases, however, the question of ethical standards in the collection of signatures arose. "And the candidate is directly involved in this to a certain extent," continued commission chairman Nikolai Bulayev.

President Vladimir Putin's victory is considered certain.(Bild: APA/AFP/SPUTNIK/Gavriil GRIGOROV)

Nadezhdin: "The liveliest of the living"
Nadezhdin disagreed and told his supporters on Telegram that, like him, they were "the most alive of the living". Alluding to Nikolai Gogol's novel of the same name, he joked: "If anyone imagines they see 'dead souls' in my signature lists - well, friends, that's not a question for me. That's more for the church or an exorcist." In the novel, the bureaucracy surrounding deceased serfs is exploited for a scam.

Criticizing the Kremlin too openly or just staging?
As a candidate nominated by a political party, Nadezhdin had to collect 100,000 signatures in at least 40 Russian regions in order to be able to run in the elections from March 15 to 17. However, his open criticism of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine has recently fueled speculation that he may not be allowed to stand for election due to a technicality.

However, there are also political scientists who see the 60-year-old as a kind of puppet of the Kremlin to make the election appear more democratic. That would not be a new strategy. The Eastern Europe expert Sergei Sumlenny has pointed out in several posts on X (formerly Twitter) that Nadezhdin denies the existence of Ukraine as an independent nation and apparently maintains a close relationship with Russian propagandists himself (see tweets above).