As a presidential campaign with predictable results kicks off in Russia, opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Sunday announced his dark-horse bid despite the government’s warnings that he will be disqualified before the ballots are printed for the March election. “Vladimir Putin, you should not be president anymore,” he said during the meeting of an “initiative group” to register his bid. “A lot of people say Russians are apathetic, but I think the youths are really becoming active again.”There were signs that this is anything but a normal presidential bid. On Sunday, workers at the electoral commission said they would wait for Navalny to deliver his nomination papers. “We all know that Putin is going to be president,” Boris Stoyanov, a 45-year-old history teacher, said at the later rally.

Source: Washington Post December 24, 2017 15:56 UTC