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Boris Nadezhdin

Photo: Uncredited / dpa

Boris Nadezhdin received more than 100,000 signatures from Russians for his presidential candidacy. Now the Russian election commission has declared that it has found “errors,” as the Guardian reports. The only anti-war candidate who wanted to run against Vladimir Putin in next month's presidential election could face expulsion.

At the last minute, the veteran politician tried to get on the ballot. Thousands of Russians stood in the cold for hours to sign in support of him.

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While Nadezhdin has not yet been disqualified, news from the Central Election Commission suggests he could be disqualified ahead of the election. He is scheduled to appear before the commission on Monday to examine the “errors” in his signatures.

As state news agency Tass reports, Nikolai Bulayev, the government agency's deputy head, said in a comment: "There are errors [in Nadezhdin's signatures] that surprise us. When we see dozens of people who are no longer alive leaving signatures, the question arises about the purity of ethical norms, even among signature collectors." He added: "In a way, the candidate is directly involved."

Nadezhdin was formerly an advisor to Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin's domestic policy chief, and his close contacts with the government are controversial.

Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of the political analysis firm R.politik, said, according to the Guardian, that Nadezhdin was probably allowed to try to collect signatures for the elections - and then fail, in order to "show the hopelessness of the anti-war agenda."

But since then, she said, Nadezhdin's support from the camp of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, his meetings with disgruntled wives of soldiers fighting in Ukraine and his attempts to reach Russian war opponents who have fled abroad have made his candidacy politically embarrassing for the Kremlin .

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