Russian authorities have granted permission to opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin to continue his candidacy campaign for the 2024 presidential election, after several anti-Kremlin candidates had already been rejected.
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Nadezhdin, who was nominated by the Civic Initiative party, announced on Thursday that the central electoral commission had given him permission to open a bank account for campaign donations and to start collecting signatures for his bid.
Before he can be officially registered as a candidate for the vote on March 17, however, the 60-year-old needs to collect 100,000 signatures within the next three weeks, which the commission then has to recognise as genuine.
In recent years, Russia's electoral commission has repeatedly rejected candidates at this stage especially if they were considered to be too much of a threat to long-time President Vladimir Putin.
On Saturday, the Central Election Commission refused to register anti-Kremlin journalist Yekaterina Duntsova's initiative group for the presidential election citing formal errors.
An attempt to appeal the decision was struck down by the Supreme Court.
Duntsova has said she will now back Nadezhdin.
Nadezhdin, an anti-war activist, expressed optimism at his bid.
"We can do it," he said on Telegram.
A former MP in Russia's State Duma, the lower house of the federal assembly, Nadezhdin is considered a moderate opposition politician and one of the last domestic critics of Putin's war on Ukraine who have not been silenced.
However, it is considered certain that Putin will also emerge victorious in his fifth run at the presidency.
The Russian Communist Party, the second largest in the lower house of parliament, has nominated veteran lawmaker Nikolai Kharitonov for the presidential election.
The communists and other factions in the Duma represent only token opposition and generally support Putin's course.
Kharitonov already ran against Putin in a 2004 presidential vote, coming in second with nearly 14 per cent of the vote.
He successfully submitted his papers to the Central Election Commission on Wednesday.
Putin is running as an independent and his campaign headquarters, together with branches of the ruling United Russia party and a political coalition called the People's Front, began collecting signatures in support of his candidacy.
Under Russian law, independent candidates must be nominated by at least 500 supporters and must also gather at least 300,000 signatures from 40 regions or more.
Putin had the constitution amended specifically in order to be able to run again.
According to the current version of the constitution, the 71-year-old can run for the last time in 2030.
The presidential term of office in Russia is six years.
with AP
Australian Associated Press
