A difficult mission for an opponent of Vladimir Putin. Boris Nadezhdine, declared competitor of the Russian president, announced on Wednesday February 21 that the Supreme Court had dismissed his appeal against the refusal to register his candidacy for the presidential election in March.

“The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation rejected my appeal challenging the refusal of registration,” Boris Nadezhdine wrote on social media, adding that he would challenge the decision.

This discreet veteran of Russian political life, who had taken a position for the end of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, had seen his candidacy rejected at the beginning of the month by the Central Electoral Commission on the grounds of irregular signatures of support.

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Boris Nadejdine said he learned of the Supreme Court's decision from a foreign country, where he said he was "on vacation with the children."

“The most trying months of my life”

“The last two months have probably been the most trying of my life,” he said on Tuesday, announcing that he was outside Russia, at a time when the Russian opposition – most of whose representatives are in prison or in exile – was in shock after the death in custody, to date unexplained, of its leader Alexeï Navalny at the age of 47.

“We have decided not to cancel a long-planned and eagerly awaited short trip for the whole family to an Asian country,” he said, affirming that he was not abandoning the ambition to participate in the presidential election.

The Central Electoral Commission claimed to have found "irregularities" among the lists of 105,000 signatures of support from Russian citizens for Boris Nadezhdine's candidacy, and rejected his file.

Vladimir Putin, 71 years old, in power for a quarter of a century, will not face any real opposition – especially on the ongoing offensive against Ukraine – in the presidential election which should confirm him for a new six-year term in office. Kremlin.

With AFP

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