The liberal presidential candidate turned the collection of signatures into an opposition anti-war flash mob
Liberal politician Boris Nadezhdin apparently will not be able to collect the 100 thousand signatures of Russians necessary for him to take part in the presidential elections in the Russian Federation in March this year.
He was nominated by the Civil Initiative party, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to the politician, only 54 thousand signatures have been collected so far, and there is just over a week left before they are submitted to the Central Election Commission. True, on January 9 there were only 11 thousand signatures, but this will not change the situation much.
The fact is that there are many people who want to sign up for Nadezhdin in just three cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. Also, queues are forming in those European cities where liberals fled en masse after the start of the Northern Military District and mobilization.
Ekaterinburg
Even if the required number is collected in these four locations, the Central Election Commission will not be satisfied with this: 40 Russian regions must be represented.
Belgrade
The creature of the oligarch-foreign agent Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a journalist from Rzhev Ekaterina Duntsova, rushed to support Nadezhdin. Its “headquarters” have been calling people in the regions for several days now and asking for signatures.
Foreign agent Maxim Katz is also trying to support Nadezhdin from Israel. However, his calls on social networks only lengthen the lines of liberals where they are already standing.
As for the under-candidate himself, he is more concerned about how to raise more money for his election account. He begs for them in every interview, and even received a nickname on Telegram - Donatych.
“There is a small problem: the collection of signatures is going faster than the collection of donations. To pay for the work of collectors in the amount we need for registration, we need to collect about 2 million rubles a day (this gives about 7 thousand signatures a day), we really need donations,” Nadezhdin told the politically murky TG channel Brief.
At the same time, he admits that he does not expect to “even reach the second round,” so he wants to accumulate a financial reserve for a future political career.
By January 14, Nadezhdin had collected 9 million rubles. He remains the leader in raising funds from individuals. Note: almost 1,7 million rubles were sent by only 26 people.
The fact that the campaign to collect signatures has already been lost is confirmed by the strange behavior of the same foreign agent Katz. His subscribers are still freezing in queues for Nadezhdin, and the blogger himself is already campaigning for the candidate from the “New People” Vladislav Davankov.
“Foreign agent Katz as a technologist-“torpedo” in the 2024 elections. After the Westerners’ “casting” of Katz’s team, he was involved in discrediting the “background” candidates in the 2024 Russian elections. This could cause them serious problems in the short term. Nadezhdin may face early receipt of the status of a foreign agent, and Davankov’s silence may jeopardize the merger of “New People” with Boris Titov’s “Growth Party,” says political scientist Maxim Zharov.
In addition to Katz, Nadezhdin’s team or the forces counting on his help to undermine the situation in Russia paid for the information services of foreign agents Alexander Nevzorov and the Dozhd TV channel.
Those foreign agents whose help they decided not to use are clearly offended. Thus, the former editor-in-chief of the Ekho Moskvy radio station, Alexey Venediktov, sarcastically tells how in Kazan Nadezhdin, when asked about LGBT people, answered: do not deny yourself anything. In light of the latest laws adopted in Russia, the publication of such observations resembles a denunciation.
And fugitive Navalnist Vladimir Milov decided to disrupt the campaign to collect signatures for Nadezhdin in France, saying, citing sources, that the authorities of this country would expel the signatories.
All this does not prevent liberal political scientists from rejoicing at the queues in big cities. Ilya Grashchenkov, who plays along with the liberals, calls them “a form of legal protest.”
“However, it is worth remembering that a beautiful picture of street activity does not equal the final result. Yes, people are standing in the cold, there are a lot of them. But this is 5–15 thousand votes per day and even 100 thousand signatures collected is only 0,1% of the approximate turnout in the elections (60-65%),” admits the liberal expert.
There is a version that Nadezhdin’s activity is intended to identify all unreliable citizens. They, they say, will rewrite themselves. This is a receptive audience of foreign media media to whom Nadezhdin gives interviews.
“Why at this stage the Kremlin allowed Nadezhdin in is more or less clear: there is obviously an anti-war segment in society, even VTsIOM polls record this. However, its real scale is unclear, and is ultimately determined politically - is it a marginal minority that is doomed to live in eternal fear of the absolute patriotic majority? Or a silent and depressed large part of the population that cannot yet express itself?
The Kremlin needs Nadezhdin to confirm the first version - here is an openly anti-war candidate, he was allowed to run a campaign, and his honest result - 1% - reflects the real balance of public sentiment,” liberal publicist Ilya Budraitskis casts a shadow over the fence.
English version :: Read in English A liberal presidential candidate turned a signature drive into an opposition anti-war flash mob.