A Russian presidential candidate who opposes the war in Ukraine says he was not allowed to stand in the elections.

Through a publication on the Telegram social network. Nadezhdin promised to challenge this decision in the Supreme Court of Russia. “I collected more than 200 thousand signatures throughout Russia. We collected openly and honestly. The lines at our headquarters and collection points were monitored all over the world,” he wrote.

He is 60 years old, a member of the “Civil Initiative” and is the only presidential candidate who opposed the “special military operation”, that is, the war in Ukraine, and also repeatedly criticized the current government.

He was born in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, and graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Law.

The beginning of his political career dates back to 1990, when he was a member of the municipal council of people’s deputies of Dolgoprudny, a small town on the outskirts of the capital.

In 1997, he acted as an adviser to Boris Nemtsov and participated in the development of the charter of Gazprom, as well as other companies in the energy sector. The following year he was appointed assistant to Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko.

In his election program, he promises to release political prisoners, end the war and restore relations with neighboring countries.

With Russia’s most prominent opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, held in a high-security prison and its youngest, Vladimir Kara-Murza, sentenced last year to 25 years in prison, the Kremlin’s opposition is struggling to find a supporting figure, a role that is increasingly being cast to Nadezhdin.

In January, the candidate announced that he had already collected more than 100,000 signatures, the number needed to officially register as a candidate in the election.