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Boris Nadezhdin says he will take on Vladimir Putin in next March's presidential elections.

The veteran politician and commentator told Newsday: 鈥淚 run for president as the principal opponent of the current president鈥檚 policy because I am sure Putin sees the world from the past and drags Russia into the past and we need a future.鈥�

He admits it is unlikely that Mr Putin will lose, adding: 鈥淲e have to go a very long way to the real fair and free elections鈥�but we have to make it the beginning of the end for Putin.鈥�

Igor Girkin, who led pro-Russian fighters in eastern Ukraine in 2014, following Moscow's annexation of the southern Crimea peninsula, has also expressed interest in running for the presidency. He is currently in jail awaiting trial for extremism, which he denies.

(Picture: Shows Russian President Vladimir Putin on 14 December 2023. Credit: Kremlin Pool via EPA.)