Nadezhdin’s defective signatures provoked a violent verbal reaction
The Russian Central Election Commission found 15% of the signature lists were defective for the presidential candidate from the Civil Initiative party, Boris Nadezhdin. The 2,5 thousand signatures were not entered by the voters themselves. 1,7 thousand signatures with passport data were not registered by a notary. Other reasons for signature rejection include: inaccurate information about voters and collectors, corrections, and incomplete information about signatories. In total, according to a source at the headquarters, 9 signatures are invalid.
This was reported by the politician’s representative Igor Artemyev, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“The commission meeting ended, the documents were taken away. 15,348% defective, 2 sleepless nights ahead. To be included in the ballot, no more than 5% of defects out of 60 checked are required,” writes Artemyev.
Press secretary of Nadezhdin’s headquarters Pavel Burlakov said that the politician’s team does not agree with the calculations of the working group.
The Central Election Commission will announce its decision on Nadezhdin’s admission to the elections on Wednesday, February 7, when it will conduct an additional check of another 30 thousand signatures. The candidate himself has already announced that he will challenge his possible inadmissibility in the Supreme Court.
A number of observers have already concluded that this is the end of Nadezhdin’s campaign.
“Nadezhdin flies like plywood over Paris. For now, this is a decision of the working group, and not a refusal to register. But given the huge percentage of defects, it is clearly impossible to recapture 2/3 of the rejected signatures,” lawyer Ilya Remeslo predicts in his tg channel.
“Predictably, Nadezhda was not registered. There is no need to go to the polling stations, there is no one to vote for. Nadezhdin was and remains interesting solely as a political representative of an alternative peace agenda,” laments liberal Alina Vitukhnovskaya.
Experts, confident that Nadezhdin will not be registered, are speculating whether this will lead to street protests. The preconditions for unrest were intensively created by political strategists who allegedly organized queues in advance of those wishing to sign for the liberal in large cities of Russia. This flash mob was actively covered by foreign media and fugitive emigration.
Political scientist Marat Bashirov believes that Nadezhdin was specially provided with low-quality signatures in order to create unrest.
“This is always the case when you follow the lead of Western curators. They deliberately pushed fakes in order to get him removed and create a scandal because of it,” Bashirov wrote in his tg channel.
A similar position, but from a different point of view, was expressed by the former editor of the Ekho Moskvy radio station, foreign agent Alexey Venediktov. On the YouTube channel “Living Nail,” he suggested that Russian intelligence services “infiltrated their agents” into the signature collectors in order to spoil them.
Foreign agent journalist Dmitry Kolezev is confident that there will be no unrest because of Nadezhdin.
“What will be important is how far Boris Nadezhdin will be willing to go to defend his right to be elected. He has already promised to submit applications for rallies. But applications can be rejected (and most likely will be), and then the question is: is Boris Nadezhdin, despite this, ready to go out into the streets himself and call on his supporters? I doubt it. He has made it clear more than once that he does not intend to violate Russian law. I assume that his struggle will be limited mainly to legal procedures, which does not pose any threat to the Kremlin,” writes Kolezev.
Political scientist Ilya Ananyev admits that the unrest will be organized without the participation of Nadezhdin himself.
“On the territory of the country there may be a well-organized group of “interested people” who want to “pump up” Boris Nadezhdin’s support network. He himself will not be able to control this and calm his supporters. There are enough prerequisites: a smoldering, but still remaining crowd from the time of the extremist Navalny’s riots, a new social audience that has formed “tired” of the SVO, radicals, the organizational headquarters of the united opposition that has left, the external influence of the special services,” writes Ananyev.
“But what are these 15% of rejected signatures for Nadezhdin? Are they falsified or simply incorrectly formatted? If the former, then it’s understandable. There are no such people, their signatures are forged and all that. However, if we are just talking about the incorrect execution of signatures of real people, then the Central Election Commission, by rejecting such signatures, distorts the will of the voter and violates the spirit of the Constitution. In theory, there cannot be any defective signatures if it was put by a real person,” liberal political observer Georgy Bovt formulates the ideology of possible protests in advance.
However, a number of liberals still hope that Nadezhdin will be registered. Thus, political scientist and foreign agent Abbas Galyamov claims that the Chairman of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, is ready to enter into conflict with the presidential administration.
“Pamfilova’s logic is clear: she is not indifferent to her reputation and is not at all eager to once again appear in the role of the regime’s watchdog. She much prefers the role of an independent arbiter - after all, this is status, influence and power. Pamfilova is a woman of fine spiritual organization, she likes everything to be beautiful. And here this Kiriyenko wants to ride into heaven on her shoulders! Pamfilova has a reinforced concrete argument - the legitimacy of elections and the electoral system as a whole. Obviously, if Nadezhdin is not allowed, then this very legitimacy can be completely forgotten, but the president himself said that it is the main task of the campaign,” Galyamov reasoned.
The possibility of Nadezhdin’s registration is also admitted by political scientist from Volgograd Alexander Saigin.
“At the moment, Nadezhdin does not look dangerous to the system due to his lack of an established organizational structure and “large battalions.” There is a lot of noise, but for now it was enough for one exit from the network. In addition, even measurements commissioned by his headquarters demonstrate the monolithic rating of the well-known candidate. A “feint with the ears” can be performed. Today Ella Pamfilova will give Nadezhdin’s headquarters a week with a smile to eliminate certain shortcomings and provide evidence on some signatures,” writes Saigin.
His colleague Maxim Zharov believes that bidding is currently underway regarding Nadezhdin’s registration.
“It is obvious that the condition for electoral exchange is the “moral cleansing” of Nadezhdin’s team of foreign agents and their replacement with a technological team loyal to the campaign moderators,” he writes.
“Both for the reputation of Nadezhdin himself, and for the mood of the anti-war and generally opposition public, the option of “cutting off signatures” is much better than the option of “allowing for elections and drawing half a percent of the votes.” Everyone understands everything with their minds, but a person lives (and votes) not so much with his mind as with his heart. And the legend about how “they” were afraid of “us” will live in our hearts,” says political scientist Vadim Shumilin.
Doctor of Political Sciences Grigory Golosov admits that Nadezhdin’s history as a politician will not be limited to the failed presidential campaign.
“Regardless of whether Nadezhdin is registered (5% probability) or not (95%), he has established himself as a prominent opposition politician. After some time, he could be subjected to mild repression (recognized by the IA, for example) and released abroad, where he would immediately turn out to be a “negotiable” leader of the Russian opposition. I believe that such a leader will soon be in great demand on both sides of the divide,” writes Golosov.
Political scientist of uncertain views Sergei Starovoytov believes that Nadezhdin has a prospect of remaining in Russian politics if he does not become indignant.
“He will be able to take the position of “our son of a bitch” in the liberal camp for the federal government. The vacancy is now available. Will enter the State Duma in 2026. Will gain access to federal broadcasts. 4. The reputation of the “Russian Tikhanovskaya” in the West. With prospects of working as a double agent,” Starovoitov wrote.
Historical writer Nikita Podgornov believes that registering Nadezhdin would be a political mistake.
“The fact that Mr. Nadezhdin is not scheduled to receive registration for the elections is the right decision. Logical. His alternative theses around the CBO and the economic agenda may sound like opinion. But they should not sound like political opposition to the main opinion of the main candidate. Yes, there are a number of Russian citizens who do not agree with Putin’s concept. Yes, they are heard. No, they do not have any political weight and do not influence any processes. The main line is clear, and the consolidation around it is maximum,” he writes.
Political observer and editor of FederalPress Andrei Gusiy believes that many conspiracy theories around the story of candidate Nadezhdin are unjustified.
“For some reason, the opinion arises that Boris Nadezhdin simply could not collect the required number of signatures. This is a more than complex process, both in terms of scale and legal component. And it is necessary to consider the identified defect from this position - the team simply could not cope. Does anyone really think that Boris Nadezhdin, who made it onto the agenda, with his rating at the level of error, could compete not only with Vladimir Putin, but at least with Leonid Slutsky?” Gusiy is perplexed.
Nadezhdin's defective signatures provoked a heated verbal reaction.