Russian opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin files paperwork for presidential run

Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Russian opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin filed official paperwork Wednesday to run against current President Vladimir Putin.

Nadezhdin's campaign on Wednesday provided Moscow's Central Election Commission with 105,000 signatures.

"This is my pride, the many days of work of thousands of people without sleep. The lines you stood in the cold are in boxes," Nadezhdin posted to X Wednesday. "It will be very difficult for the CEC and the current government to say 'I didn't even notice the elephant.'"

Nadezhdin has said he would focus on ending the war in Ukraine if elected, telling BBC that Putin had "practically destroyed the key institutions of the modern state of Russia."

Nadezhdin made an appeal for donations and said he would soon provide supporters with a means to provide financing.

"Our task now is to ensure the work of thousands of people in election headquarters throughout Russia. To do this, you will need to raise tens of millions of rubles. Very soon we will open a voting account and tell you how to donate there," Nadezhdin posted to Telegram Wednesday.

His application now faces review by the electoral commission that will seek to weed out any irregularities in the signatures he submitted.

Putin formally registered his candidacy on Monday with 314,909 valid signatures, with 91 declared invalid "due to incorrect information about voters," according to Moscow's Central Election Authority.

CEC Chair Ella Pamfilova said that Putin's candidacy was "adopted unanimously" after the signatures were authenticated.

Yekaterina Duntsova, an independent politician, was barred from running after the electoral commission cited 100 mistakes found on her submission in December.

Russia's Federation Council set the three-day voting period for March 15 through March 17.

The CEC on Wednesday said that 276 polling stations had been set up for Russian voters living abroad, including 143 in foreign countries, the state-run TASS news agency reported.

Pavel Andreev, a member of the CEC, said a total of 1,890,863 Russian foreign voters had been registered as of Jan. 1.