Boris Nadezhdin: Russia bans antiwar candidate from election

 Russia's Central Election Commission has rejected the presidential candidacy of liberal opposition figure and anti-war activist Boris Nadezhdin.

The 60-year-old Nadezhdin had been seen as the best hope for the opposition. 

Why was Nadezhdin banned?

The commission justified its decision on Thursday, citing a large number of incorrect signatures from supporters. 

Nadezhdin obtained significantly more signatures than the required 100,000, submitting his bid at the end of January.

However, from a random sample of 60,000 signatures, the commission said 9,147 were declared invalid.

Along with Russian President Vladimir Putin, only three other candidates appear likely to now run in the election. The three are widely seen as an opposition in name only, in reality being backed by the Kremlin and with no chance of defeating the incumbent. 

All major opposition politicians have now been disqualified and Putin looks certain to secure another six-year term in the March 15-17 contest.

Another full six-year term for Putin — who first became president in the year 2000 — would extend his rule into the 2030s. 

Nadezhdin said he planned to challenge the commission's decision in the Supreme Court, insisting that the signatures in his favor had been gathered openly and honestly.

"I don't agree with the election commission's decision," said Nadezhdin. "I will not abandon my intentions."

"Sooner or later, I will be president of the Russian Federation," he told a press conference. "I wish it would be sooner."

Who is Boris Nadezhdin?

Nadezhdin's political career began in the 1990s when he mixed with Putin and other Kremlin insiders.

He was close to former deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, the opposition figure assassinated in 2015, before moving into political circles closer to the Kremlin. 

He has since spent 30 years in second-tier Russian politics, serving as a local mayor in a town outside Moscow as a member of various opposition parties.

Nadezhdin has rallied crowds of Russians across the country to support his bid to get on the ballot. He has called Russia's war in Ukraine "catastrophic" and said he intended to free political prisoners in Russia.

Russia's usually fractured opposition, including jailed dissident Alexei Navalny and exiled former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, had backed Nadezhdin.

rc/kb (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)