Former TV journalist Yekaterina Duntsova, who was disqualified from running in Russia's presidential elections last Saturday, filed an appeal with the Supreme Court on Tuesday 26 to try to reenter the race for the country's leadership.
On Saturday, members of the Central Election Commission voted unanimously to reject Duntsova's candidacy, citing “several violations” in the documents submitted. The 40yearold represents opposing positions to the current Kremlin chief: She defends the end of the war in Ukraine that began in February last year and the release of political prisoners, such as the former lawyer Alexei Navalny.
Although she is not well known across the country and her own campaign assumes that she only has a few thousand people in a country of more than 140 million people, Dunstova believes it is an injustice that she is prevented from speaking out against President Vladimir Putin to compete. in power as president or prime minister for more than 20 years.
Duntsova told Portal that by preventing participation in the election, the authorities were preventing Russians from freely expressing their political preferences.
The Central Election Commission says its decisions are based solely on rules and that its job is to ensure that potential candidates follow the correct procedures.
Without mentioning Duntsova by name, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the constitution allows people with political ambitions to run for president if they meet the appropriate legal criteria. Pointing to opinion polls that show the 71yearold Putin's approval rating of about 80%, the Kremlin says a majority of Russians support what it calls Russia's “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Earlier this month, Putin launched his presidential bid to stay at the helm for another six years. With Nalvany missing during his nearly 20year prison sentence and other opponents imprisoned, there is no strong, established opposition figure to challenge him. Apart from Duntsova, no one was available for the undertaking.
Even if some of his supporters do not promote his victory, his control over the political apparatus and the media gives him a significant advantage. Independent polls show the president has an approval rating of over 80%, based on Russian citizens' belief that Putin has restored order and some of the influence the country lost during the chaos of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
SEE