{"id":14684,"date":"2024-01-26T12:49:01","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T12:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/26\/i-dont-know-why-im-not-arrested-anti-war-presidential-candidate-ignites-russian-anger\/"},"modified":"2024-01-26T12:49:01","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T12:49:01","slug":"i-dont-know-why-im-not-arrested-anti-war-presidential-candidate-ignites-russian-anger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/26\/i-dont-know-why-im-not-arrested-anti-war-presidential-candidate-ignites-russian-anger\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I don\u2019t know why I\u2019m not arrested.\u2019 Anti-war presidential candidate ignites Russian anger"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

For the past week cities and towns across Russia have witnessed an unusual display of defiance. <\/p>\n

No protests or picket lines, just patient, orderly queues.\u00a0Dozens, if not hundreds of people lining up in\u00a0freezing conditions\u00a0to try to\u00a0ensure\u00a0an anti-war presidential candidate has enough signatures to get on the ballot for the vote in March. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s even happening outside of Russia,\u00a0with\u00a0volunteers collecting expats\u2019 signatures in cities\u00a0from\u00a0London\u00a0and\u00a0Paris\u00a0to Georgia\u2019s capital\u00a0Tbilisi. <\/p>\n

Key endorsements from other Russian opposition figures, including associates of jailed Kremlin critic\u00a0Alexey\u00a0Navalny have helped.\u00a0But the deadline to submit 100,000 signatures, with strict rules on quality and regional quotas, is January 31\u00a0\u2013\u00a0and time is running short. <\/p>\n

The candidate is Boris Nadezhdin, on the surface an unlikely opponent for Vladimir Putin. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s a physicist by training, served one term in the state Duma 20 years ago, and by his own account joined the ranks of Russia\u2019s opposition after the arrest of exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a normal Russian bureaucrat, and I was a normal Russian bureaucrat.\u201d <\/p>\n

He believes this may be why he can get away with publishing a manifesto calling Russia\u2019s so-called \u201cspecial military operation\u201d a \u201cfatal mistake,\u201d in a country where spreading \u201cfalse\u201d information about the army carries a maximum 15-year prison sentence, and the most prominent opposition figure,\u00a0Navalny,\u00a0is serving a multi-decade prison term beyond the\u00a0Arctic\u00a0Circle. <\/p>\n

Ultimately he admits, \u201cI don\u2019t know why I\u2019m not arrested.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Kremlin says it doesn\u2019t see him as a rival, but the speculation is that they are allowing Nadezhdin to continue, either so that Putin can win against an anti-war candidate, thereby affording himself a mandate to keep the war going, or to provide a release valve for an undercurrent of anti-war sentiment, to prevent it descending into mass protests. <\/p>\n

Nadezhdin maintains his movement is real.\u00a0\u201cMillions of people understand,\u201d he says, \u201cwe have to change the way Russia is going now, because Putin forced Russia into this track of militarization, this track of isolation.\u201d <\/p>\n

His plan, if elected, is to free all political prisoners on day one (including Navalny), call an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and start peace talks. <\/p>\n

For those waiting in line in the Moscow snow, this is not about Nadezhdin himself.\u00a0Elizaveta from Bryansk,\u00a0who declined to give her second name and from\u00a0a border region now under regular drone attack, says the war has hit home. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy town is in a special situation,\u201d she tells us, \u201cmy main wish is that it should stop as soon as possible.\u201d <\/p>\n

Another supporter,\u00a0who also wanted to be identified only as\u00a0Ivan,\u00a0tells us he doesn\u2019t care if Nadezhdin is a Kremlin plant or not. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am prepared even for the candidate to be, as we say here, a representative of one of the Kremlin towers. For me the most important thing is that military action should stop and any vote in support of that will be valid.\u201d <\/p>\n

For several people we spoke to, whether Nadezhdin ends up on the ballot or not, this is a rare opportunity to play a part in Russian political life. <\/p>\n

Gripping her hot tea handed out by volunteers, Elena puts it simply.\u00a0\u201cI think people should see that we want to show our position, that we exist.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past week cities and towns across Russia have witnessed an unusual display of defiance. No protests or picket lines, just patient, orderly queues.\u00a0Dozens, if not hundreds of people lining up in\u00a0freezing conditions\u00a0to try to\u00a0ensure\u00a0an anti-war presidential candidate has enough signatures to get on the ballot for the vote in March. It\u2019s even happening <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14685,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}