This is the woman (40) who wants to challenge Putin in Russian presidential elections | War Ukraine and Russia

Doentsova is a local politician from the Tver region, about 160 kilometers northwest of Moscow. She submitted documents to Russia’s Central Election Commission on Wednesday to formally register her candidacy. As an independent candidate, she must then collect 300,000 signatures from at least 40 different regions in Russia by January 31. The election committee will then decide within ten days whether the candidate can actually stand.

“I hope I can become a presidential candidate. But it won’t be easy to collect the signatures. So I hope that people will be willing to help me with that,” Doentsova said.

“We expected to be investigated by the authorities. But I just had to go to the prosecutor to tell them what my intentions were. I have not yet been persecuted or pressured. And I hope it stays that way,” said the ambitious woman.

“We have taken this step and I think it should inspire the people who support us,” she told reporters. “People in Russia think they need an iron hand. We are so used to it. But I think people can make their own decisions. If we create a situation in which we make our own choices, they no longer need that iron hand.”

The former journalist has previously publicly spoken out in favor of peace in Ukraine, although she avoids the term “war.” “Sooner or later every armed conflict ends, and I hope it ends as soon as possible,” she told Reuters in November.

Doentsova has said her first act if elected president would be to release political prisoners. She has also specifically called for the release of Alexei Navalny, who has been missing for two weeks.

Some critics in Russia have accused Doentsova of working with the Kremlin to give Russia’s heavily monitored elections a veneer of legitimacy. Doentsova has denied any such ties.

“Not the Kremlin, not the oligarchs and not the big companies – they do not support me,” Doentsova told Reuters.

In Russia, the electoral commission has so far received sixteen applications for the presidential elections that will take place in mid-March. One of these is that of current President Vladimir Putin, who has been in power since 2000 and will undoubtedly be re-elected, as no form of opposition is tolerated in the country.

LOOK. This is how Putin announced his candidacy

“At this moment we have already received sixteen applications,” Electoral Commission President Ella Pamfilova told Russian news agencies on Wednesday. Candidates have until December 27 to submit an initial registration request to the Election Commission.

The March 2024 election is seen as a formality for Putin, who has been in power for almost a quarter of a century. The opposition has been virtually eradicated and since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, the repression of critical voices has increased even further.

On Tuesday, Russian nationalist and Kremlin loyalist Leonid Slutsky, who had just been appointed as a candidate by his party, promised that he “will not take votes away from the president of Russia.”

In theory, the Russian head of state can remain in power until 2036, the year he turns 84.