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A former television journalist and Ukraine war critic has been barred from running against Russian President Vladimir Putin in next year's presidential election.
Yekaterina Duntsova, 40, an independent politician who wanted to run to end the war with Ukraine, was unanimously rejected on Saturday by the country's electoral commission, which cited “numerous violations” in documents she submitted.
Duntsova submitted her application on Wednesday after securing the support of 500 supporters, as required by Russian electoral law.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and former journalist Yekaterina Duntsova (right), who tried to run against him to end the war. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/POOL/AFP via Getty, left and Alexander Zemlianichenko via AP, right.)
According to a Telegram channel close to Duntsova's campaign, the commission found 100 errors in her nomination papers, including errors in the spelling of names.
According to Russian news agency Kommersant, the Central Election Commission (CEC) also had reason to believe that the minutes of the meeting with its supporters were drawn up after the meeting itself. This meant that the electoral commission could neither determine the size of the group itself nor its composition.
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The decision will almost certainly reinforce critics' view that the Kremlin will not tolerate a serious competitor running against Putin in the first presidential election since the start of the 22-month war with Ukraine. They have long viewed it as a sham trial with only one possible outcome.
Duntsova, who is also a lawyer and was a member of a local parliament, wrote on Telegram that she would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, calling it unjustified and undemocratic.
“This political decision deprives us of the opportunity to have our own representative and express views that deviate from the official aggressive discourse,” Duntsova wrote.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with the President of the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi on December 6, 2023. Putin is widely expected to win a second term. (Sergei SAVOSTYANOV / POOL / AFP )
She also appealed to leaders of the Yabloko (Apple) political party to nominate her as a candidate, saying she was unable to call a second meeting of supporters. However, the party's chairman, Grigory Yavlinsky, said in an interview that Yabloko did not plan to run a candidate and would not support Duntsova because the party did not know her.
The head of the electoral commission, Ella Pamfilova, offered Duntsova words of comfort after her rejection.
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“You are a young woman, you have everything ahead of you. Any minus can always be converted into a plus. Every experience is still an experience,” Pamfilova said.
Last month, Duntsova called for the release of political prisoners and said Russians were “very tired” of the conflict in Ukraine.
Putin submitted his nomination papers to the Central Election Commission on Monday for the March 17 election, which he is widely expected to win. The former intelligence officer still enjoys great popularity in Russia. His support skyrocketed with the start of the war against Ukraine and he currently has an 82% approval rating, according to Statista, a global data platform.
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Putin has been president or prime minister continuously since 1999. He has been president since 2012, with his previous term as president lasting from 2000 to 2008.
Igor Girkin, who led pro-Russian fighters in eastern Ukraine in 2014, said he wanted to challenge Putin. Girkin is an outspoken war advocate who has heavily criticized Russia's military strategy in Ukraine and is currently in prison awaiting trial on extremism charges, which he denies.
A police officer and a rescue worker walk in front of a restaurant destroyed by a Russian attack in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on Tuesday, June 27, 2023. Independent Yekaterina Duntsova, 40, wanted to run on a platform of ending the war with Ukraine. (National Police of Ukraine via AP)
Others who have announced plans to run include former lawmaker Boris Nadezhdin, who holds a seat on a local council in the Moscow region.
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Voting will take place over three days. The three-day window was used for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic, with officials saying it was more convenient for voters.
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The expansion of the national voting window was criticized as a threat to election integrity because it required ballots to be securely stored overnight and made the job of election observers more difficult.
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The vote is also open to four regions of Ukraine that were partially and illegally annexed by Russia.
The CEC reported that 29 candidates applied for nomination.
The Associated Press and Portal contributed to this report.