Yekaterina Duntsova, a former TV journalist, was disqualified from running against Vladimir Putin in Russia’s upcoming presidential election on Saturday. Her platform was opposition to the conflict in Ukraine.
The central electoral commission rejected her candidature with a unanimous vote, citing “numerous violations” in the materials she had filed to support her campaign.
Putin’s detractors claimed the ruling demonstrated that in the first presidential election held since the beginning of the 22-month conflict, no one with sincere oppositional views would be permitted to run against him in March of next year. They consider it to be a fictitious process with a single possible result.
