Most people who live in a repressive society where an unpopular opinion or a wrong word can land you in prison (or worse) have the good sense to shut up when they’re within earshot of strangers.

Then there are those who say that the silent ones aren’t smart . . . they’re cowards. This second group of people are known as dissenters, or challengers, or oppositionists.

Of course, the first group would label the second group as fools, or idiots, or cockeyed optimists.

Which brings us to the matter of Boris Nadezhdin, whose surname, ironically, is a form of the Russian word for “hope.”

Boris belongs to the second group. Whether time ultimately proves him to be a fool, an idiot, or whatever, one thing is for certain: he is an optimist. He has hope for the future of his country, and he is willing to take the risks involved in getting the ball rolling by declaring himself a candidate for the presidency of the Russian Federation in the election coming up in mid-March of this year.

Now, we all know that there is already a shoo-in candidate for that office, who has the advantage of being the incumbent. Add to that the fact that he already controls the military, the SVR and FSB (together, formerly known as the KGB), the GRU (military intelligence), the parliament, all the regional and local militia units, the various mercenary groups, the media, the Young Pioneers, the unions of trash collectors and street sweepers and teachers and artists, the senior citizen groups, and a whole bunch of “dead souls”* . . . well, then you see why the odds are stacked against Boris from the get-go. He’s running against none other than Vladimir Putin. But he has hope. And you’ve really got to respect that.

[* “Dead Souls”: A novel by Nikolai Gogol, first published in 1842, wherein land owners who were allowed to claim their serfs for tax purposes were often guilty of continuing to claim them — or their souls — after their deaths. Recommended reading.]

Boris doesn’t really believe he has a chance of winning, of course, but at least hopes that he might garner enough votes to make it clear that anything is possible. If not now, perhaps next time. And as of this writing, he appears already to have engineered a small miracle by attracting long lines of people anxious to add their signatures to the list, “not just in progressive cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg but also in Krasnodar in the south, Saratov and Voronezh in the southwest, and beyond the Ural Mountains in Yekaterinburg.” [Robert Coalson, RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty (RFE/RL), Jan. 30, 2034.] As of this writing, he has beaten the odds by gathering more than twice the 100,000 signatures needed to get his name on the ballot . . . provided, of course, that the authorities don’t disqualify a substantial number of those signatures on one pretext or another, which is a distinct possibility . . . or disqualify him on some other “technicality.”

His submission to the Central Election Commission was due yesterday, January 31st. The Commission now has ten days to “verify the signatures and decide whether to register his candidacy.” [Id.] It is even possible that he will be allowed to continue his campaign, simply as a display of Putin’s magnanimity (since he is already assured of the vast majority of votes in any event).

Political analyst and former Kremlin speechwriter Abbas Gallyamov disagrees with me on that point. As told to RFE/RL:

“If an anti-war candidate is registered, he will be against Putin and all the other candidates will . . . be irrelevant. People won’t be voting for Nadezhdin . . . but against Putin, because Putin represents the war. That is why I don’t think the Kremlin will register Nadezhdin. The risk is very great.” [Id.] He’s probably right.

*. *. *

But either way, I worry about Boris. The world has seen what happens to dissenters and protesters in today’s Russia: the scores of Alexei Navalnys and Vladimir Kara-Murzas, banished for decades to Siberian penal colonies on manufactured charges of corruption, terrorism, treason, or simply spreading “fake” news about the “special military operation” in Ukraine. The dozens of alleged “suicides,” “heart attacks,” and “falls” from windows sustained by those who have fallen (no pun intended) out of favor with the Kremlin. And, most dramatically, mercenary and former Putin friend Yevgeny Prigozhin and the nine others whose plane was simply blown out of the sky.

I admire Boris Nadezhdin’s courage and his worthy goals for his country. But I can’t help wondering whether he wouldn’t have been better off staying with the first group, the silent ones. From the standpoint of personal safety, obviously that would have been the logical choice. But in that case, could he have lived with his conscience? Only he can answer that.

As to the long-term effect his brave candidacy will have on Russia’s political future . . . that, of course, also remains to be seen. If I were a betting woman, I’m not sure where I’d put my money; but my hopes and best wishes are with Boris and those 200,000 gutsy citizens who signed his petition.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
2/1/24