He ran as a pro-peace candidate and against Putin. But it won't be anymore. The Russian election commission rejected his candidacy because there were errors in the documents submitted, according to international news reports.
Yekaterina Duntsova's nomination was submitted on December 20; After three days (of five days to file nominations) came the answer: there were administrative errors, all of which were stopped by the Central Election Commission, unanimously among its members.
Elections will be held in March and incumbent President Vladimir Putin will be the candidate. A journalist and local politician, Dantsova emerged as an independent candidate for peace and the release of political prisoners.
“Moscow Times” reports that more than 100 errors were identified in the submitted documents, a justification that prevents the next steps of the independent candidacy: the search for minimum signatures in several regions to appear on the ballot.
According to the same source, Duntsova – who has had to deny links to an oligarch who left Russia in recent days – intends to appeal the decision, but has also opened the door to being a party candidate.
The international agency Reuters had already faced restrictions on the news package it received during the candidate's candidacy. The Election Commission said 29 candidates had registered for the election, AFP reported.
Putin has been Russia's president since 2012 and will now run for a new six-year term in 2024. He was also the president of the federation between 2000 and 2008, and he was the prime minister between 2008 and 2012. The invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022, was a milestone in its recent history.
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