MOSCOW,. Russia’s electoral commission formally registered President Vladimir Putin as a candidate in March’s presidential election, a vote in which he will almost certainly win another six-year term.
Putin, 71, presents himself as independent, but maintains close control over the Russian political system he has established during 24 years in power. Prominent critics who could challenge him are imprisoned or living abroad and most independent media are banned, so his re-election in the March 15-17 elections seems all but guaranteed.
Putin also ran as an independent in 2018, leaving aside the United Russia party that nominated him in 2012. His approval rating is around 80%, making him much more popular than United Russia, widely considered part of the controlled bureaucracy. by the Kremlin more than as a political force.
The Central Election Commission formally authorized Putin’s candidacy after reviewing 315,000 signatures collected for his campaign in Russia’s 89 regions. Russian electoral law requires independent candidates to submit at least 300,000 signatures to get on the ballot.
The commission has already given the green light to three other candidates from parties with parliamentary representation, who were not required to present signatures: Nikolai Kharitonov, from the Communist Party; Leonid Slutsky, of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, and Vladislav Davankov, of the New People’s Party.
The three groups have mostly supported the Kremlin’s initiatives. Kharitonov ran against Putin in 2004 and finished a distant second.
Boris Nadezhdin, a 60-year-old progressive politician who serves as a local legislator in a town near Moscow, also wants to run. He has openly called for an end to the war in Ukraine and beginning a dialogue with the West.
Thousands of Russians have lined up across the country to sign in support of Nadezhdin’s candidacy so he can run, a rare show of opposition sympathies in a tightly controlled political landscape that posed a challenge to the Kremlin.
The Central Election Commission is expected to review Nadezhdin’s application this week to determine whether to register him in the elections.
Under a constitutional reform led by himself, Putin can run for two more six-year terms, which in theory would allow him to remain in power until 2036.
Repression continues in Russia
A 72-year-old retiree was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for allegedly sharing an online post about Russian military losses in Ukraine, human rights groups reported Monday.
Yevgeniya Maiboroda, from the Rostov region in the south of Russiawas prosecuted under a law prohibiting the deliberate spread of “false information” about the Russian military.
Maiboroda pleaded guilty but denied she was motivated by “political hatred,” as prosecutors alleged, human rights group OVD-Info said.
The retiree shared two posts on her VK social network account. One was an “emotional video” about the conflict and another was about the number of soldiers killed, legal group Setevie Svobodi said.
The group claims the woman felt compelled to share the posts after her brother was trapped under the rubble of a building that was “collapsed by projectiles” in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
A spokesperson for the Shakhti city court in Rostov confirmed Maiboroda’s conviction to AFP and stated that the retiree was accused of illegal content on her VK account, without giving further details.
The Russian government declared criticism of the military illegal shortly after launching its offensive in Ukraine in February 2022. Thousands of opponents of the conflict have been censored, imprisoned or exiled.
An ailing 62-year-old pensioner who criticized the conflict was sentenced this month to more than eight years in prison for treason, a charge he denies.
The war continues
Ukraine on Monday rejected the claim Russia according to which it has captured a small village in the east, while fighting continues almost two years after the Russian invasion.
The Russian military announced on Monday that it had “liberated” the small village of Tabaivka in the Kharkiv region.
Tabaivka is located near the border with the Luhansk region and, according to Ukrainian media, had a population of 34 people before the Russian invasion.
The Ukrainian army denied this claim and assured that the battles around the town continue.
“The enemy claims that it has captured Tabaivka. This is not true,” army spokesman Volodimir Fitio told Ukrainian television.
“Until this moment, hostilities continue near this settlement,” he added.
However, he said Moscow was “trying to move forward in all directions.”
Both the Kremlin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have denied that the conflict has reached a stalemate, even though the extensive front line has barely moved in months.
Russia has been trying for months to advance towards the Kharkiv region, where its forces were repelled by the Ukrainian army at the beginning of the invasion.
It also attacked the main city of Kharkiv several times this month, killing eleven people in one attack last week.
Source: With information from AP/AFP
