In a crucial turn of events that could significantly impact the upcoming presidential election, the Supreme Court has refused to allow Boris Nadezhdin to register as a candidate for the presidential election. This decision followed a marathon meeting of the Central Election Commission (CEC), which lasted more than 9 hours, at which controversial signatures supporting his candidacy were considered, Sobchak writes.

A "Caution News" correspondent who was present at the scene reports that even despite the Central Election Commission's admission that a number of signatures were unlawfully declared invalid due to differences in places of registration according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs database or discrepancies between signatures in small squares, most of the signatures was rejected due to bureaucratic obstacles.

At the court hearing, 13 witnesses testified, claiming that they personally left their signatures in support of Nadezhdin and were surprised to learn that their signatures were declared invalid. The trial took place in conditions of increased secrecy: at the stage of examining the evidence, the broadcast of the hearing to journalists was stopped, which caused a wave of criticism about the transparency of the trial.

Boris Nadezhdin, whose absence from the meeting was noted, faces a serious obstacle to participating in the presidential race.