More than 15,000 Russians on Sunday endorsed the candidacy of Alexei Navalny, seen as the only opposition leader who stands a fighting chance of challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin in a March vote. “An election without us is not an election,” Navalny said in Moscow at about 5pm GMT before submitting his nomination to the Central Electoral Commission, which will rule whether he can run. Authorities have deemed the 41-year-old ineligible to run due to a criminal conviction, saying “only a miracle” would help him get registered. Navalny has described the conviction as politically motivated. Thousands backing the charismatic lawyer met in 20 cities from the Pacific port of Vladivostok to Saint Petersburg in the northwest to nominate him as a candidate in the presence of electoral officials to boost his chances of contesting the March 18 ballot.
His campaign said more than 15,000 people endorsed him nationwide. An independent candidate needs 500 votes to get registered with election authorities, according to legislation. In Moscow, more than 700 people supported Navalny’s candidacy as they gathered in a huge marquee set up in a picturesque park on the snow-covered banks of the Moscow River. “I am hugely happy; I am proud to tell you that I stand here as a candidate of the entire Russia,” Navalny told supporters earlier. “We are ready to win and we will win these elections,” Navalny said before finishing his speech in a cloud of confetti. Navalny said that if he is not allowed to put his name on the ballot, he will contest the ban in courts and repeated his threat to call for the polls to be boycotted if he did not get registered. “Thwart the elections if they are dishonest,” he told supporters.
Members of the electoral headquarters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny hold boxes of files before submitting his documents to be registered as a presidential candidate at the Central Election Commission in Moscow on Sunday.
Putin, 65, announced this month that he will seek a fourth presidential term, which would extend his rule until 2024 and make him the longest-serving Russian leader since dictator Joseph Stalin. Opposed by token opposition candidates, he is widely expected to sail to victory. However, with the result of the March vote a foregone conclusion, turnout could be low, harming Putin’s hopes for a clear new mandate, observers say. Navalny, who has tapped into the anger of a younger generation who yearn for change, hopes that popular support for his Kremlin bid would pressure authorities into putting his name on the ballot. “If Navalny is not allowed to run, I am not going to vote,” pensioner Marina Kurbatskaya said in Moscow. “I don’t see anyone else who I want to become president.”
Navalny has built a robust protest movement in the face of persistent harassment and jumped through multiple hoops as he campaigned across the nation in an effort to shift attitudes amid widespread political ennui. He says he is the only Russian politician who has run a genuine Western-style political campaign, stumping for votes in far-flung regions. Many critics scoff at Navalny’s Kremlin bid, but the anticorruption blogger says he would beat Putin in a free election if he had access to state-controlled TV, the main source of news for a majority of Russians. Navalny shot to prominence as an organizer of huge anti-Putin rallies that shook Russia in 2011 and 2012 following claims of vote-rigging in parliamentary polls. The rallies gradually died down, but he has been able to breathe new life into the protest movement this year, bringing out tens of thousands of mostly young protesters onto the streets.
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Putin is anticipated to win re-election yet again, continuing nearly two decades of dominance over Russian politics. "Navalny is implicitly barred from running for office because of a conviction in a fraud case which has been viewed as political retribution," The Associated Press writes. "He could have run if he [were] given a special dispensation or if his conviction was cancelled." But election officials opted not to grant him permission, Reuters reports: "The decision by the central election commission was widely expected as election officials had repeatedly declared Navalny would be ineligible to run. Twelve members of the 13-member commission voted to bar Navalny. One member abstained, citing a possible conflict of interest. "Navalny, 41, who polls show would struggle to beat incumbent Vladimir Putin in the March election, said he would appeal and called on his supporters to boycott the election and campaign against it being held."
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny delivers a speech during a meeting with his supporters in Moscow on Sunday. Navalny, seen as the only Russian opposition leader who stands a fighting chance of challenging strongman Vladimir Putin, was seeking to get his name on the ballot for a March vote, but on Monday an election commission voted to bar him from the election.
"The process in which we are called to participate is not a real election," Navalny said in a video statement, according to a Reuters translation. "It will feature only Putin and the candidates which he has personally selected." As NPR has previously reported, Navalny has been arrested multiple times for organizing and participating in large protests against Putin's government. Kremlin orchestration has been a hallmark of Russian politics under Putin, with some "opposition" political figures actually answering to Putin's party. But as NPR reported back in June, Navalny is "doing something no Russian politician has done in a long time ... running a national political campaign based on grassroots enthusiasm rather than backroom Kremlin deals." Navalny started out as an anti-corruption blogger, and uses the Internet to campaign for support — his Youtube channel is a crucial communication medium.
NPR's Moscow correspondent, Lucian Kim, followed Navalny as he traveled around the country in June: "Gaping income disparity, greedy officials and potholed roads are all things that make ordinary Russians angry, and Navalny hammers away at them. He then takes questions on everything from the army draft - he'd abolish it - to LGBT rights. He says people's private lives are nobody else's business. "Alexei Makarkin, a Moscow political analyst, says the last politician who ran the same kind of grassroots campaign and evoked the same enthusiasm was Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first president 25 years ago. "Makarkin says the chances of the Kremlin letting Navalny run as a presidential candidate are close to zero, but that the opposition leader's real goal is to build a broad base of support he can use as a political tool later if social discontent grows."
Russian Opposition Leader Barred From Running Against Putin In 2018
Navalny's petition was rejected by 12 CEC members one day after he submitted it, state-run RIA-Novosti reported. One member abstained, according to a BBC report. "Firstly, a citizen who has been sentenced to imprisonment for committing a grave or especially grave crime and who has an outstanding conviction for the said crime, has no right to be elected president of the Russian federation," CEC member Boris Ebzeev said in a CNN report. Russians are not allowed to run for 10 years after being convicted for a serious crime. "We will of course challenge this decision everywhere. With the Constitutional Court and wherever it is possible," Navalny said in a Tass report. But he said he was skeptical about the chances. After being convicted in February for his role in embezzlement by a court in Kirov, Novalny said he planned to run and was eligible because only convicts are banned.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny attends a procedure Sunday to submit documents for his registration as a candidate for Russian presidency at the Russian Central Election Commission headquarters in Moscow. The next day the CEC said it denied his application because of an embezzlement conviction.
Navalny was handed a five-year suspended sentence with a probation period of 1 year and 5 months as part of the embezzlement case from Kirovles timber company in 2013. Navalny and his brother Oleg were also convicted for fraud and money laundering of the Yves Rocher Vostok company, a worldwide cosmetics and beauty brand, in 2014. Alexei Navalny received a suspended sentence of 3 years and 6 months in this case. "The crime Navalny was charged with [embezzlement case] is referred to grave offenses, depriving an individual of the right to take part in the elections for 10 years from the date the conviction is removed or cancelled," Ebzeyev said. He added Navalny still had an unexpunged conviction. On Sunday near Moscow, thousands rallied in support of Navalny. A total of 742 supporters raised small red voting cards inside a campaign tent to formally nominate Navalny for a presidential bid.
Navalny wants to run against President Vladimir Putin, who announced his intention to seek re-election -- his fourth presidential bid -- as an independent candidate at his annual press conference earlier this month. When asked why Russia lacked effective opposition leaders, Putin said most of the current opposition figures were more focused on "making noise" instead of ways to benefit the country. After the CEC's decision, Navalny called for a boycott of the March 2018 election. "We are announcing a voters' strike," Navalny said. "The procedure in which we are invited to participate is not an election. It involves only Putin and those candidates whom he personally chose, who do not pose a slightest threat to him."
Alexei Navalny to appeal ban from Russian presidential election
Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC) voted Monday to bar Navalny from running in the March 2018 presidential election because of his conviction on criminal charges that the anti-corruption blogger and his followers say were politically motivated. The commission's decision came a day after Navalny declared he had collected the required number of endorsements nationwide to become a presidential candidate.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who submitted endorsement papers necessary for his registration as a presidential candidate, speaks at the Russia's Central Election commission in Moscow
Following Monday's CEC decision, Navalny released a video calling on his supporters to boycott the presidential vote. "We understood that this [the CEC decision] was possible, and we have a clear and precise plan... We are declaring a 'voters' strike', in as much as the procedure in which we are being urged to participate is not an election," he said.
Navalny said his team would now campaign against participating in the presidential election, saying to cast a ballot would be "to vote for deception and corruption." President Vladimir Putin announced earlier this month that he will run in the March 18 election, and it is widely assumed he will win a fourth term as Russian head of state.
Navalny Calls for Presidential Election Boycott After Being Barred as Candidate
Whom to be nervous about? Navalny may only count on 1 to 4% of votes. You think that may scare anybody?Kremlin must be gettin' nervous...
Thousands endorse Putin challenger
Tue, Dec 26, 2017 - ‘MIRACLE’: While authorities have deemed Alexei Navalny ineligible to run due to a criminal conviction, he has threatened to call a boycott if he is not allowed to register
More than 15,000 Russians on Sunday endorsed the candidacy of Alexei Navalny, seen as the only opposition leader who stands a fighting chance of challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin in a March vote. “An election without us is not an election,” Navalny said in Moscow at about 5pm GMT before submitting his nomination to the Central Electoral Commission, which will rule whether he can run. Authorities have deemed the 41-year-old ineligible to run due to a criminal conviction, saying “only a miracle” would help him get registered. Navalny has described the conviction as politically motivated. Thousands backing the charismatic lawyer met in 20 cities from the Pacific port of Vladivostok to Saint Petersburg in the northwest to nominate him as a candidate in the presence of electoral officials to boost his chances of contesting the March 18 ballot.
His campaign said more than 15,000 people endorsed him nationwide. An independent candidate needs 500 votes to get registered with election authorities, according to legislation. In Moscow, more than 700 people supported Navalny’s candidacy as they gathered in a huge marquee set up in a picturesque park on the snow-covered banks of the Moscow River. “I am hugely happy; I am proud to tell you that I stand here as a candidate of the entire Russia,” Navalny told supporters earlier. “We are ready to win and we will win these elections,” Navalny said before finishing his speech in a cloud of confetti. Navalny said that if he is not allowed to put his name on the ballot, he will contest the ban in courts and repeated his threat to call for the polls to be boycotted if he did not get registered. “Thwart the elections if they are dishonest,” he told supporters.
Members of the electoral headquarters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny hold boxes of files before submitting his documents to be registered as a presidential candidate at the Central Election Commission in Moscow on Sunday.
Putin, 65, announced this month that he will seek a fourth presidential term, which would extend his rule until 2024 and make him the longest-serving Russian leader since dictator Joseph Stalin. Opposed by token opposition candidates, he is widely expected to sail to victory. However, with the result of the March vote a foregone conclusion, turnout could be low, harming Putin’s hopes for a clear new mandate, observers say. Navalny, who has tapped into the anger of a younger generation who yearn for change, hopes that popular support for his Kremlin bid would pressure authorities into putting his name on the ballot. “If Navalny is not allowed to run, I am not going to vote,” pensioner Marina Kurbatskaya said in Moscow. “I don’t see anyone else who I want to become president.”
Navalny has built a robust protest movement in the face of persistent harassment and jumped through multiple hoops as he campaigned across the nation in an effort to shift attitudes amid widespread political ennui. He says he is the only Russian politician who has run a genuine Western-style political campaign, stumping for votes in far-flung regions. Many critics scoff at Navalny’s Kremlin bid, but the anticorruption blogger says he would beat Putin in a free election if he had access to state-controlled TV, the main source of news for a majority of Russians. Navalny shot to prominence as an organizer of huge anti-Putin rallies that shook Russia in 2011 and 2012 following claims of vote-rigging in parliamentary polls. The rallies gradually died down, but he has been able to breathe new life into the protest movement this year, bringing out tens of thousands of mostly young protesters onto the streets.
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Russian Opposition Leader Barred From Running Against Putin In 2018
December 25, 2017 - Alexei Navalny will not be allowed to run for president in Russia's election next year, officials announced on Monday. Navalny, a critic of President Vladimir Putin, has vowed to appeal.
Putin is anticipated to win re-election yet again, continuing nearly two decades of dominance over Russian politics. "Navalny is implicitly barred from running for office because of a conviction in a fraud case which has been viewed as political retribution," The Associated Press writes. "He could have run if he [were] given a special dispensation or if his conviction was cancelled." But election officials opted not to grant him permission, Reuters reports: "The decision by the central election commission was widely expected as election officials had repeatedly declared Navalny would be ineligible to run. Twelve members of the 13-member commission voted to bar Navalny. One member abstained, citing a possible conflict of interest. "Navalny, 41, who polls show would struggle to beat incumbent Vladimir Putin in the March election, said he would appeal and called on his supporters to boycott the election and campaign against it being held."
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny delivers a speech during a meeting with his supporters in Moscow on Sunday. Navalny, seen as the only Russian opposition leader who stands a fighting chance of challenging strongman Vladimir Putin, was seeking to get his name on the ballot for a March vote, but on Monday an election commission voted to bar him from the election.
"The process in which we are called to participate is not a real election," Navalny said in a video statement, according to a Reuters translation. "It will feature only Putin and the candidates which he has personally selected." As NPR has previously reported, Navalny has been arrested multiple times for organizing and participating in large protests against Putin's government. Kremlin orchestration has been a hallmark of Russian politics under Putin, with some "opposition" political figures actually answering to Putin's party. But as NPR reported back in June, Navalny is "doing something no Russian politician has done in a long time ... running a national political campaign based on grassroots enthusiasm rather than backroom Kremlin deals." Navalny started out as an anti-corruption blogger, and uses the Internet to campaign for support — his Youtube channel is a crucial communication medium.
NPR's Moscow correspondent, Lucian Kim, followed Navalny as he traveled around the country in June: "Gaping income disparity, greedy officials and potholed roads are all things that make ordinary Russians angry, and Navalny hammers away at them. He then takes questions on everything from the army draft - he'd abolish it - to LGBT rights. He says people's private lives are nobody else's business. "Alexei Makarkin, a Moscow political analyst, says the last politician who ran the same kind of grassroots campaign and evoked the same enthusiasm was Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first president 25 years ago. "Makarkin says the chances of the Kremlin letting Navalny run as a presidential candidate are close to zero, but that the opposition leader's real goal is to build a broad base of support he can use as a political tool later if social discontent grows."
Russian Opposition Leader Barred From Running Against Putin In 2018
the next and the last czar of Muscovy will be muslim kadyrov, ask panin (boron) he knows it
Next step may be: somebody kills Navalny and blames Putin for that just before the elections. I'm not a psychic but I can see how West has been making useless and harmless living oppositioners into really useful and harmful dead oppositioners like Nemtsov and Litvinenko (and a Russian crook Voronenkov in Ukraine) stirring their deaths and putting them on Putin.
