Boris Nadezhdin told the wives of Russia's mobilized soldiers the war was “a big mistake by Putin, of course, and the consequences will be very grave.”

Boris Nadezhdin told the wives of Russia’s mobilized soldiers the war was “a big mistake by Putin, of course, and the consequences will be very grave.”

A politician bidding to run against Vladimir Putin in Russia’s upcoming presidential election described the decision to go to war in Ukraine as a “big mistake” in comments to the wives of soldiers on Thursday.

Boris Nadezhdin, representing a centre-right party called Civic Initiative that has no seats in parliament, is seeking to gather the necessary 100,000 signatures from people across Russia to enable him to stand against Putin.

Nadezhdin, 60, told the soldiers’ wives that the war, which the Kremlin calls a “special military operation”, was “a big mistake by Putin, of course, and the consequences will be very grave.”

    • assembly@lemmy.worldEnglish
      422·
      1 year ago

      It will come as a complete surprise when we hear that he committed suicide by four self inflicted gunshot wounds to the head.

      • buzziebee@lemmy.worldEnglish
        18·
        1 year ago

        Oh it’s totally normal for someone to shoot themselves15 times with a gun that holds 11 bullets. They probably reloaded halfway through.

      • OpenStars@startrek.websiteEnglish
        93·
        1 year ago

        No no no no, first he will shoot himself in the back of the head, then fall down several flights of stairs, then shoot himself in the back of the head again, then he will fall out of the building. A message needs to be sent: you cannot be too careful what you say when you run against Putin.

  • ZaktorEnglish
    53·
    1 year ago

    Russia regularly allows fall-guy opponents to play the part of opposition without threatening the regime. This guy will either have his signatures disqualified (if he’s legit) or get some single digits votes proving his ideas are not supported. If he starts to catch on he’ll fumble in some way to make sure it putters out. They reject actual opposition that could threaten the ruling party and can’t be controlled.

  • Tilgare@lemmy.worldEnglish
    271·
    1 year ago

    At this point it has to be “suicide by election” right? Why put yourself in the line of fire?

    • Cinner@lemmy.worldBEnglish
      12·
      1 year ago

      You can only make so many martyrs before anyone with a conscience is willing to become one as well.

  • cafeinux@infosec.pubEnglish
    25·
    1 year ago

    At first I thought “This guy’s done”, then I thought “There are still Russians not indoctrinated, and they got balls. Let’s hope it sparkles some things in others”.

  • squiblet@kbin.social
    24·
    1 year ago

    It’s pretty brave to run against Putin at all, even without criticism like this. For one, someone can’t really expect to win, so it’s essentially a form of protest. And then, look where Navalny is.

  • positiveWHAT@lemmy.worldEnglish
    211·
    1 year ago

    The quality of comments here is just as low as Reddit… It’s enough with ONE thread of jokes.

  • Gork@lemm.eeEnglish
    202·
    1 year ago

    Hmm. Wouldn’t be surprised if he got forcibly conscripted to a penal battalion and ordered on a suicide mission in Ukraine only to be picked off by drones.

  • swade2569@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    1 year ago

    I’m guessing he will live until about 6 weeks after losing the election, then have an accident with a 5 story window. Given how long Prigozhin lasted. .

    • Cinner@lemmy.worldBEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      Progozhin had a literal army protecting him. It still took over a month and the first opportunity was to plant a bomb under the wing of his private jet.

      Putin will use as much propaganda and (made up) blackmail as he needs, and if that doesn’t work, he’ll make sure he does something to be able to lock him up, just like he did to Navalny.