Anti-War Presidential Hopeful Nadezhdin Says Russia Needs To Stick To Its Constitution

Anti-war presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin, whose official registration as a candidate for the March 15-17 presidential election in Russia is under question by authorities, says Russia should stick to its constitution and act like a real federation by giving more freedom to its regions and ethnic republics.

Though Nadezhdin -- if he is allowed on the ballot -- is not expected to seriously challenge incumbent Vladimir Putin, the 60-year-old Uzbekistan-born academic has caught the attention of the electorate with his criticism of Russia's war in Ukraine and of Kremlin policies that have restricted freedoms and regional rights.

In an interview with RFE/RL's Idel.Realities, Nadezhdin said the country had strayed away from real federalism, "when people in regions elect their leaders, and the money earned by the regions themselves remains in the regions."

Russia's Electoral Commission (TsIK), which routinely refuses to register would-be opposition candidates on the pretext that they submitted an insufficient number of valid signatures, has told Nadezhdin that some 15 percent of the signatures he turned in are invalid, a claim he rejects.

Russia's presidential election law allows for flaws in up to 5 percent of signatures among 60,000 that are checked to approve a candidate's registration. The commission is expected to make a final decision regarding Nadezhdin's official registration as a presidential candidate on February 7. He has said he will appeal all the way to the Supreme Court to get on the ballot.

The Kremlin's tight grip on politics, media, law enforcement, and other levers nationwide means Putin, who has ruled Russia as president or prime minister since 1999, is certain to win, barring a big, unexpected development.

But the surprising show of support for the little-known Nadezhdin, whose platform says the invasion of Ukraine was a "fatal mistake" and accuses Putin of dragging Russia into the past instead of building a sustainable future, is complicating the Kremlin's more aggressive ambition of boosting the perception of Putin's legitimacy.

In the RFE/RL interview, Nadezhdin took aim at Putin's centralization of power while moving away from allowing regions to govern themselves, saying that if elected president, he would return "real elections of regional governors."

"A governor must be a person well known in the region. I believe that financial support for the regions must be increased. And governors must feel accountable not to Moscow but to their electors," Nadezhdin said.

An example of Putin's moves came last year when he pressured the Republic of Tatarstan until it changed its constitution, canceled the status of the region's president, and restricted other elements of Tatarstan’s sovereignty,

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Running Against Putin: Boris Nadezhdin's Bid For Presidency Aims To End 'Catastrophe'

Nadezhdin said Moscow shouldn't interfere in such issues, instead allowing regional lawmakers to rule.

Republics and regions within the Russian Federation must "live within Russia not because they are banned from something or frightened by somebody, but because they feel themselves comfortable and well," he said.

"My task is to work so that none of the republics wanted to separate [from Russia]," Nadezhdin added.

Talking about the Kremlin-backed authoritarian leader of the Chechen Republic in Russia's North Caucasus, Ramzan Kadyrov, who has been accused of regularly violating Russia's constitution, Nadezhdin said leaders should be loyal to the country and not to one person like Putin.

"Kadyrov must be loyal to the Russian Constitution, secure its implementation in the republic’s territory. If he manages to do that, then let him work; if he fails, we would seek a replacement," Nadezhdin said.

Similarly, Nadezhdin said a Putin-initiated 2017 move to abolish mandatory studies at schools of national languages in Russia's ethnic republics was wrong and that it is "up to parents to decide if their children will learn those languages."

"Russia must stick to the Russian Constitution. In fact, everything written there is right," Nadezhdin said.