Russia: Putin opponent Boris Nadezhdin fails in his lawsuit against being excluded from the election.

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Putin opponent Nadezhdin: defeat in court

Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / dpa

Putin's opponent Boris Nadezhdin says he has suffered another defeat in his attempt to run for president in Russia.

"The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has rejected my application to challenge the denial of registration," Nadezhdin said in online services on Wednesday.

The opposition politician announced that he would appeal the decision.

Nadezhdin has advocated for ending Russia's war against Ukraine.

His candidacy for the presidential election was rejected by the Russian election commission around two weeks ago.

The electoral commission had said that “irregularities” had been found in some of the 105,000 signatures from supporters.

Many opposition politicians are in prison or in exile

Nadezhdin appealed against the decision.

Before the decision, his team explained that the alleged "errors" criticized by the commission were also small typographical errors that arose during the digitization of handwritten information.

Incumbent Vladimir Putin is expected to win the presidential election in mid-March.

Putin has led Russia as president or prime minister for more than 20 years.

There is no real opposition in the election.

Much of the opposition is in prison or in exile; last week the prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny died in custody.

hen/AFP