The Russian opposition in exile denounces thousands of irregularities in Putin’s presidential candidacy

2024-02-02 19:09:27

The Russian president Vladimir Putin faces the presidential elections next March knowing that they have the chance to win. With an opposition on the ropes, which continues to denounce difficulties and fraud in past elections, victory seems clear for the Russian ruling party. Without lowering their arms, some dissidents in exile denounce that the candidacy of the Kremlin strongman would have irregularitiessomething demonstrated in a lawsuit that the Central Election Commission rusa has admitted to Procedure. In this petition, it is argued that 75,000 of the signatures collected during the electoral process they would not be valid, and in the same document it is requested to invalidate the candidacy of the Russian leader.

As El Periódico de Catalunya, from the Prensa Ibérica group, has learned, the writing of this group of dissidents collects a total of 320 complaints in 70 regions of Russia – the country has 89 federal subjects. In the same text, the public entity is also requested to cancel the candidacy of Putin, alleging that in addition to said irregularities, he would be violating the Russian Constitution by running for office. fifth term. According to the opposition’s interpretation of the Magna Carta of the Eurasian country, no one can serve as president for more than of mandates.

In a statement issued by these dissidents in parallel to the complaint, they communicate that for them it is very clear “as rotten the system is” and they admit that they know “what the result of the petition.” However, they point out that the intention of this initiative is “to show the Russians and the global community (…) that there are no elections in Russia and what is done under the Putin regime has nothing to do with the global standards”. In the same text, the Russian leader is called a “dictator” and the Central Electoral Commission itself is called “biased.”

Tailor-made mandates

Vladimir Putin came to power in 1999 as a total unknown for the Russians, when he was prime minister and Yeltsin chose him as his successor. Although he did not seem to have that aspiration previously, once at the top he has not shown much intention of leaving the president’s chair, something he only did between 2008 and 2012. At that time he acted as Prime Minister while the faithful Dmitri Medvédev He held the presidency. In 2012, the former KGB agent in East Germany returned to the presidency with new laws up his sleeve, such as the law against “homosexual propaganda”, which served to go gradually drowning any attempt at protest – like the ones that occurred in 2011 – and end up anchoring themselves in the Kremlin. In 2020, the Russian State modified the Constitution as appropriate, through a referendum criticized for its lack of transparency, to be able to run again as a candidate until at least 2036, when the Russian president’s term counter was restarted after the latest modifications. If he were to fulfill all those mandates he would be in power for more years (36) than any other leader in the history of the country like Iósif Stalin, Catherine the Great o Lenin.

For the Russian ruling party, the victory is so clear that is not even usually celebrated debate among the candidates for decades, something unthinkable in EU countries. Something that also shows the lack of real opposition are the comments of some of the other presidential candidates, such as that of the Liberal-Democratic party, Leonid Slutski, who assured that choosing his party “is not voting against Putin” and predicted an “overwhelming victory” for the Russian president. Nikolai Kharitonov, the candidate of the Communist Party, assured that he cannot “talk about winning or not winning”, going around the bush. A less well-known one, Andrei Bogdanov, of the Russian Party of Freedom and Justice, replied: “of course I won’t win.” Other candidates have also shown their doubts when it comes to saying whether they seek victory in the candidacy, in some cases hesitating or laughing sarcastically.