Russia bars pro-peace presidential bet

Russia's Central Electoral Commission on Saturday rejected an application by a candidate calling for peace to stand in next year's presidential elections.

The commission cited "mistakes in documents" submitted by Yekaterina Duntsova, a former journalist and city councilor campaigning "for peace and democratic processes," Russian television reported.

The commission's chief, Ella Pamfilova, said the members unanimously rejected Duntsova's bid to stand in polls that President Vladimir Putin is expected to win comfortably.

The commission said Duntsova could not go on to the next stage of gathering thousands of supporters' signatures.

Pamfilova told her: "You are a young woman, you have everything ahead of you."

Duntsova, 40, had filed documents to stand in the March race as an independent candidate.

Pamfilova said Saturday that 29 people have filed to run for the presidency.

Moscow has for years sidelined opposition figures from elections and political life, a clampdown that accelerated after the Kremlin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in 2022.

In a previous report, the CEC confirmed her papers were in order.

Earlier Wednesday, the CEC had said 16 people had filed to run for the presidency, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.

The CEC said it would also hold the ballot in four Ukrainian regions partially occupied by Russian forces and in the Crimean peninsula, annexed from Kyiv in 2014.

The Kremlin-friendly Liberal Democratic Party of Russia this week nominated a former negotiator for the Ukraine conflict, Leonid Slutsky, as candidate.

He said his candidacy would not "take away votes" from Putin.

Candidates must file applications to run in the March vote by 27 December, election rules state.

Igor Girkin, a hardline nationalist turned Kremlin critic who is in detention awaiting trial on extremism charges, said he wanted to challenge Putin.

WITH AFP