Veteran Russian pro-democracy politician Grigory Yavlinsky decided against running in the upcoming presidential race in which Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to secure a crushing victory.
Leader of the liberal Yabloko party Grigory Yavlinsky seen at a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday, Dec. 9 2003. Misha Japaridze/Associated Press file
Yavlinsky, 71, the three-time candidate, won’t take part in the election, his press service said Saturday. He would only consider running if he got 10 million signatures to support his candidacy, but only has about 1 million, Yavlinsky said in an interview with an online program run by independent journalists on YouTube.
Russia is due to hold presidential elections in March 2024, shortly after the second anniversary of the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Putin, already the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin, is seeking a new six-year term. With the result widely seen as a formality, the election process so far indicates that Putin won’t have a strong opponent.
As many as 29 people are considering a campaign run, Russian election commission chief Ella Pamfilova said on Saturday, according to Interfax.
The election commission authorities on Saturday denied registration of the party of anti-war journalist Ekaterina Duntsova, most likely preventing her from entering the race. Duntsova had asked Yavlinsky’s Yabloko party to make her its representative, but Yavlinsky declared the party wouldn’t have any candidates, Kommersant newspaper said.
Russia’s Communist Party on Saturday approved 75-year-old deputy Nikolay Kharitonov as its candidate. He ran against Putin in 2004 and got nearly 14% of the vote, placing second. The party’s long-term leader Gennady Zyuganov decided not to run due to the risk he would get fewer votes than the party did in 2018, RBC wire reported, citing unidentified party officials.
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