Show caption Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, centre, in Moscow on Monday. Photograph: Evgeny Feldman/AP Russia Russia rejects concerns over banning of Alexei Navalny from elections Kremlin hints at reprisals after calls for boycott of presidential election, with Navalny blocked from challenging Putin Marc Bennetts in Moscow Tue 26 Dec 2017 12.14 EST Share on Facebook

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Russia has rejected concerns that a decision to bar the government critic Alexei Navalny from running against Vladimir Putin in next March’s presidential election could undermine the vote’s legitimacy, as the Kremlin hinted at reprisals in response to opposition calls for a boycott of the polls.

Russia’s election committee ruled on Monday that Navalny should be ineligible to stand for public office until at least 2028 because of a previous conviction for fraud. Navalny, who has spent the past year carrying out a nationwide grassroots election campaign, said the charges that led to his conviction were trumped up to prevent him from challenging Putin. He said he would ask his 200,000 campaign volunteers to divert their efforts into convincing Russians to boycott the election and he also called for nationwide protests.

“Vladimir Putin is extremely shaken up. He’s afraid of competing with me,” Navalny said in an online video address. “What they are offering us can’t be called elections. Only Putin and the candidates he has personally selected, those who don’t represent even the smallest threat to him, are taking part. To go to the polling station now is to vote for lies and corruption.”

Putin, who has been power for 18 years, was a notable absentee at his official nomination for re-election in Moscow on Tuesday. The Russian president was put forward as an election candidate at an indoor event at northern Moscow’s sprawling Soviet-era VDNKh park. The Kremlin cited Putin’s work schedule as being behind his failure to attend.

The nomination event was attended by more than 650 invitees, including sports stars and cultural figures. The background to the stage was a gigantic map of Russia emblazoned with the words: “A strong president. A strong Russia.” Putin spent Tuesday afternoon meeting children at a traditional festive season event at the Kremlin.

The EU said in a statement that the decision to bar Navalny “casts a serious doubt on political pluralism in Russia and the prospect of democratic elections next year”. It pointed out that the European court of human rights had previously ruled that Navalny had been denied the right to a fair trial on the charges cited by Russian authorities. “Politically-motivated charges should not be used against political participation,” the EU statement said. “We expect the Russian authorities to ensure that there is a level playing field, including in the presidential elections that will take place on 18 March.”

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said Navalny’s boycott of the vote “can in no way affect the legitimacy of the election”. He said that calls to boycott the election may be in violation of Russian law and should be “rigorously studied”, a statement that was viewed by some opposition figures as a thinly veiled threat of punishment.



Calls for election boycotts are not illegal under Russian law, but authorities last year blocked several websites that had been urging Russians not to vote in parliamentary elections.

Navalny, a charismatic anti-corruption campaigner, came to prominence during massive anti-Putin demonstrations in Moscow in 2011 and 2012, when he called the ruling United Russia party “crooks and thieves”. Although he has massive support among Russian liberals, some opposition figures remain wary of backing him because of his past as a nationalist activist, including publicly backing race rioters who demanded the expulsion of Chechens from a town in southern Russia in 2013.

Although Navalny, who is barred from appearing on state television, was only polling at about 2% before the decision to ban him from next year’s vote, his supporters say his participation in the presidential polls would have allowed him to tap into rising anger over high-level corruption. In an opinion poll published this month, more Russians said for the first time since 2003 that they wanted to see change rather than the “stability” that Putin has made the cornerstone of his long rule.

Navalny said his supporters would monitor election turnout in an attempt to prevent what he alleged were government plans to falsify voter turnout levels. Russian media, citing presidential administration sources, have reported that the Kremlin is seeking to secure 70% of the vote for Putin with a 70% overall turnout at next year’s election.

Although Putin is all but certain to win re-election for fourth term that would keep him in power until 2024, an opinion poll released by the Moscow-based Levada Centre pollster this month indicated that turnout and Putin’s share of the vote would fall short of the Kremlin’s target by about 10%. Turnout at the previous presidential elections, in 2012, was 65%.

“Navalny’s participation in the election would likely have increased interest, and resulted in a somewhat higher turnout,” said Denis Volkov, a sociologist at the Levada Centre. He said he doubted, however, that an opposition boycott would prove an effective means of discrediting Putin’s inevitable election victory.