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Too bad he‘ll fall out of a window anytime soon

Even in the Far East city of Yakutsk, 450 kilometers (280 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, Nadezhdin’s team said up to 400 people a day braved temperatures that plunged to minus 40 Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit) to sign petitions.

this is pretty amazing, the guy's party doesn't even have seats in Parliament, and he might run against Putin

Exiled opposition activist Maxim Katz said on YouTube that whatever the outcome, Nadezhdin’s candidacy shows “there is one thing we know right now: Conversations about civic apathy in Russia are very far from reality. What we have is not civic apathy but a civic famine — an enormous hidden potential.”

that's a great quote, i like this guy

Anyone want to take bets on how long it'll take for this guy to end up falling out of a building or get into a plane crash?

How long before he's offered some extra spicy tea?

I'm sure the list of voters would be valuable to the current government. Its a list of those who oppose the status quo

The cynic in me tells me this guy is used to gauge how widespread those ideas are within Russia, providing interesting intelligence to Putin.

They'll put him on trial for some bogus charges and throw him in jail. Just standard procedure.

New law, all windows above the third floor must remain open for fire safety until the election.

The question now is whether Russian authorities will allow him on the ballot.

The elections are rigged anyway.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The stocky, bespectacled 60-year-old local legislator and academic has struck a chord with the public, openly calling for a halt to the conflict in Ukraine, the end of mobilizing Russian men for the military, and starting a dialogue with the West.

Nadezhdin’s name is a form of the Russian word for “hope,” and although he is highly unlikely to defeat the still-popular Putin, the lines are a rare sign of protest, defiance and optimism in a country that has seen a harsh crackdown on dissent since its troops rolled into Ukraine nearly two years ago.

Waiting to sign a petition in St. Petersburg, Alexander Rakityansky told AP he went through a “period of apathy when I thought I couldn’t do anything.” Now, however, he sees Nadezhdin’s campaign as a chance to exercise his civil rights.

Originally from Belgorod, the Russian border city hit by repeated Ukrainian attacks, Rakityansky said he backed Nadezhdin so his hometown “doesn’t get bombed and people don’t die on the streets.”

For Putin to win a convincing victory, he needs his supporters to turn out and his critics must stay home with no “glimmer of hope,” said Ekaterina Schulmann, a political scientist and nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin.

He has appeared as a pundit on Russian television and even criticized the conflict in Ukraine during a talk show on state-controlled NTV in September 2022 — a rare level of visibility not enjoyed by other opposition politicians such as Navalny and Vladimir Kara-Murza, both now imprisoned.

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Somehow from the headline I imagined something different. I somehow imagined a little Putin. Basically someone playing the game so hardcore on purpose that it is obvious that he is faking all of his public opinions. But by pretending to be anti-LGBT, pro war, etc, he would avoid all the possible made up claims of foreign agent, being anti-Russia, etc. So they would have to find some other reason to disqualify him. Imagine they'd not be able to find one and not kill him off and he would actually have to run in a DeSantis vs Trump like manner. And if he won he'd just break all his election promises. Stop the war, paint everything in rainbows, change the constitution back.

I mean I know that's bs but that's where my mind went and I want to keep it there for just 5 more minutes.