The cross : You have collected 208,000 signatures in Russia. This Wednesday, January 31, you submit 105,000 to the electoral commission to validate your candidacy presented by a party. Can Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin take the risk of authorizing a candidate who says he is against him and his special operation in Ukraine?
Boris Nadejdine: I didn’t receive a signal. Without the wave of support generated by my signature campaign, the Kremlin could have easily accepted my candidacy. Because although supported by the ruling party, Vladimir Putin is running as an independent and must submit not 100,000, but 300,000 signatures. We know that he obtained them through collections in schools, workplaces, administrations, etc. His teams set up stands in shopping centers. But there were never any queues! If they authorize me, they take the risk that I take votes and they will no longer be able to say that the whole country supports Putin. If they don’t authorize me, it discredits the election.
With your candidacy, are you not legitimizing an election which, by taking place in particular in the annexed Ukrainian territories, is denounced by many opponents?
B. N. : I don’t see this as a problem. Formally, it is legal even if, for example, the authorities do not publish the number of voters. The fate of these territories must be part of the negotiations. Opposition leaders initially asking to boycott the presidential election are now calling to vote for me. If I’m running and there’s a real campaign, I can get well over 10% of the vote. My dream is to provoke a second round against Putin. For the moment, my popularity is with the opponents, i.e. 15-20%. It’s the minority. But if I run and speak on television, I can expand that support.
The Russians who signed for you gave your name, address and passport. Won’t the authorities use these lists to target opponents?
B. N. : There are also the 30,000 Russians who donated to my campaign – 80 million rubles (€800,000). This is not oligarchs’ money. Nor from the Kremlin. It comes from individuals. All this is done within the legal framework of my application. Russia certainly lives in the midst of a regime of repression, but they cannot arrest hundreds of thousands of people. This would be a return to the Stalinist terror of 1937.
You are suspected of being manipulated by the Kremlin. In the past, you worked with Sergei Kirienko, liberal prime minister under the Yeltsin presidency, who became a key man in Putin’s Kremlin. Have you met him?
B. N. : The last time I saw him was in 2015, at the funeral of murdered opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. We have since exchanged contacts. But all relations ceased in 2020 during the referendum on the Constitution, which I opposed. In the 1990s, I rubbed shoulders with these people now in power: Kirienko, but also Putin and many others. Today, I have no contact with the Kremlin or with the opponents in exile. I am myself, independent.
The Kremlin could launch a media, or even legal, operation against you. Are you ready ?
B. N. : They may end up arresting me. I’m ready. I am not afraid. My family is worried but supports me. One of my daughters, 22, works in my HQ. I had five wives, I have four children, one grandchild. It would be strange if they found me a sex scandal at 60 years old. I am a local MP. Expert in legislation, I teach, I give conferences.
These income (30 million rubles in six years, or €300,000, Editor’s note) are in Russia, without an offshore account. The tax authorities have never accused me of anything. It would be surprising to find fraud now. They may decide to put me on the list of “foreign agents” on the grounds, like others, that I give interviews to the Western press. This is one of the risks.
Why do you oppose the Kremlin’s military offensive in Ukraine? If you are president, what do you do?
B. N. : As a Russian saying goes: “A bad peace is better than a good quarrel. » In today’s Russia, I have to be careful about the words used publicly. I am against the special military operation, Vladimir Putin’s fatal mistake. I am for peace. On the first day of my presidency, I will propose to Ukraine and its Western supporters a cease-fire, the withdrawal of heavy weapons and the start of talks.
What fate for Crimea, annexed in 2014 by Russia?
B. N. : President, I will defend the interests of Russians, including in Crimea. The last time I went there was five years ago. Unlike Donbass, it returned to Russia without a drop of blood. Go there: locals want to live in Russia. But the rest of the world must recognize it, perhaps via a referendum recognized by the international community. Look at Alsace-Lorraine: it has become an incontestable fact that it belongs to France.
What would your other measures be in the Kremlin?
B. N. : I have three names of potential prime ministers. One is not in Russia. The other two, known figures, occupy important positions under Putin. I know them well. I haven’t talked to them about it yet. One of the first measures will be to release some 400 political prisoners. For the economy, long-term actions will be required to reduce military spending, invest in education and the medical system, and increase competition in industry and reform the tax system.
Under Putin, siloviki (security forces) took power, political and economic. Will you be able to preside with them?
B. N. : One of the priorities will be to bring the structures of the security forces under control. Difficult task. I have contact with some siloviki, who support me, who think Russia has gone too far under Putin. In the past, I worked with Sergei Shoigu, the current Minister of Defense. I know several generals. People who participate in the special military operation support me. This is also my electorate.
If, highly improbable hypothesis, Vladimir Putin agreed to debate with you on television, what would you say to him?
B. N. : I will tell him : “In the first years, you did a lot to consolidate the country, reform its economy; but, in recent years, you have made fatal errors, the reform of the Constitution and the special military operation in Ukraine. It’s time for you to retire. Make way for a new generation to fix your mistakes! So that Russia moves forward, becomes a peaceful and free country again. »
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Vladimir Putin against “systemic opposition”
The other candidates for the March 15 presidential election mostly belong to “systemic opposition”, a term which designates movements that do not challenge the regime.
Communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov has already announced that he does not intend to criticize Vladimir Putin. Likewise, the candidate “liberal” of the “New People” party, Vladislav Davankov, says he sees criticism of competitors as a method “from another age”.
Leonid Sloutski, nationalist candidate of the Liberal Democratic Party, assumes for his part that he has no intention of defeating the Russian president at the polls, and predicts a ” huge “ victoire.
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