The Rejected Anti-War Candidate: Who is Yekaterina Duntsova?
Yekaterina Duntsova was born on April 24, 1983, in Krasnoyarsk, Russia before her family moved to Rzhev in the Tver region in 1995, where she completed her education. She has two degrees in law and journalism. Duntsova pursued a career as a journalist and also coordinated a volunteer search and rescue team in Rzhev. In 2017, she demonstrated her activism by gathering over 4000 signatures in opposition to the abolition of direct mayoral elections in Rzhev. Serving as a Deputy in the Rzhev city Duma from 2019 to 2022, Duntsova consistently opposed the consolidation of municipalities initiated in the Tver region in 2016.
Her public profile rose when she participated in a Moscow forum for municipal deputies in March 2021, an event that was dispersed virtually by security forces, resulting in the detention of many participants. Later, Duntsova came to the scene in the 2024 Russian presidential elections, drawing attention for her anti-war stance and advocacy for a democratic and peaceful state. Her slogan was “We’ll bring back the country’s future” (вернем стране будущее). She emphasized peace in Ukraine and pledged to release political prisoners like Alexei Navalny, Alexandra Skochilenko and Ilya Yashin 3. However, her bid for candidacy faced obstacles: first she was summoned to the prosecutor’s office due to her remarks on peace in Ukraine and later she was rejected by the Central Election Commission due to paperwork errors, including spelling mistakes.
Following the rejection of her nomination, Duntsova said that she wanted to establish her own party. After announcing the foundation of her new party called “Dawn”, she was reportedly stopped by police, underwent a drug test, and was subsequently released upon testing negative.
Furthermore, due to her neutral stance, it was suspected that Duntsova might have been a made-up opposition by the Kremlin. However, she refuted these claims and in an interview with the Moscow Times stated that “I am definitely not a spoiler. This was my decision and it will be executed up to the point of my abilities”. Considering her rejection by the Electoral Committee and her detention it is unlikely that Duntsova was a Kremlin-sponsored opposition.
