I called this one. And I really can’t brag about it, because it was pretty much of a no-brainer. Boris Nadezhdin has now been warned by the Election Commission that they have found “flawed” signatures on his petition for approval as a candidate for the presidency of the Russian Federation in next month’s election.

Well, color me surprised . . . NOT!

On February 1st, I expressed my concern for this courageous man who has already managed to develop a substantial following, and gathered more than twice the number of signatures required to support his petition for inclusion on the ballot. I also wondered whether the Election Commission would still find a way to block his inclusion. And that may just be what is happening now. They have two more days in which to announce their final decision.

Whether he succeeds or fails, the next — and greatest — concern is for his future safety. Will he end up, like Alexei Navalny and Vladimir Kara-Murza, charged with and convicted of the heinous “crime” of speaking out against the war in Ukraine, and consigned for the next 25 or 30 years to some barren Siberian penal colony inside the Arctic Circle? Or will he follow Yevgeny Prigozhin into that growing collection of unfortunate souls who have met with suspicious “accidents” or premature “heart attacks”? Will the public clamor in his favor be enough to save him from the government’s . . . oh, wait. We’re talking about Vladimir Putin’s government, not anything even vaguely resembling a democracy. Scratch that last half-question.

In a society where the laws are changed daily at the whim of one individual, and order is forcefully maintained by jack-booted militias, public opinion becomes irrelevant and life hangs by a thread. As always when dealing with Putin’s Russia, we can only wait and see what happens in Mr. Nadezhdin’s case, and hope that his worst punishment turns out to be the agony of defeat at the polls.

Good luck, Boris.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
2/8/24