At the end of February, almost half of the respondents knew about the refusal of the Central Election Commission to register Boris Nadezhdin to participate in the presidential elections. At the same time, about 9% allowed the opportunity to vote for Nadezhdin, but only 3% decided on the choice and were ready to cast their vote for him. About 7% of respondents approved of Nadezhdin’s activities in February, while the majority did not know anything about him. Support for the politician was higher among younger, better-off and more educated residents of the largest cities. Those who sympathized with Nadezhdin were those who saw in him a “fresh man”, a “new face” or a principled oppositionist. Respondents who did not sympathize with the policy gave the most general arguments, or called him “unreliable”, “frivolous” and oriented towards the West.

At the end of February 2024, almost half of the respondents had heard that the CEC had not registered Boris Nadezhdin as a candidate for the presidential election. The older respondents were the most aware of this (about half of those informed in the group), the youth under 25 years of age were the worst informed (about a third of those informed).

Among all respondents, about 9% admitted the possibility of voting for Boris Nadezhdin in the presidential elections if he had been registered as a candidate (among oppositional citizens who disapprove of the president’s activities, their share was 38%).

At the same time, when in a similar survey in January, respondents were asked to choose a candidate from five people (the situation of the ballot, which includes the names of V.Davankov, B.Nadezhdin, V. Putin, L.Slutsky and N.Kharitonov), only 3% were ready to vote for Boris Nadezhdin.

In general, as of February 2024, among all respondents, about 7% approved of Boris Nadezhdin’s activities, 28% disapproved and another 57% did not know anything about him.

The share of those approving Boris Nadezhdin’s activities was higher among those who “heard a lot” about the CEC’s refusal (20% in the group), as well as among oppositional citizens (27% in the group disapproving of the president’s activities).

Support for Boris Nadezhdin was higher among younger, better-off and more educated residents of the largest cities. At the same time, the respondents approving of Boris Nadezhdin’s activities did not look like a homogeneous group. It cannot be said that oppositional citizens definitely prevailed among them. Thus, they were almost equally divided on issues of support for the president and the government, assessments of the state of affairs in the country, and support for the actions of the Russian armed forces on the territory of Ukraine. However, three quarters of Boris Nadezhdin’s supporters advocated a transition to peace talks. 

Among those who approve of B. Nadezhdin’s activities, the main reasons why respondents like the politician were most often about his novelty — “a fresh man”, “a new face”, “fresh forces” (22%), as well as his opposition – “against the current government”, “Putin’s opponent” (20%), Nadezhdin’s anti-war position was noted by 13% of respondents sympathetic to him. Almost half of those who disapprove of B Nadezhdin’s activities could not name the reasons why they dislike his activities (47% found it difficult to answer). Those who were able to formulate their position most often spoke about the most general rejection — “I don’t like him”, “his political program” – 16%, considered him “unreliable”, “frivolous”, “doubtful” – 12%, about 6% suspected him of sympathising with the West.