The presidential election, which will be held in March 2024, is Russia’s first since President Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.

The head of Russia’s electoral commission, Ella Pamfilova, said Ms Duntsova would not be allowed to progress to the next stage of gathering thousands of supporters’ signatures.

At the time, she told the Reuters news agency: “Any sane person taking this step would be afraid - but fear must not win.”

Moscow has sidelined opposition figures for years, and President Putin is expected to win in March; the Kremlin claims he enjoys genuine support among Russians.

In November, a nationalist pro-war blogger who had fiercely criticised Russia’s military strategy in Ukraine, said he wanted to challenge Putin and disrupt the “sham” poll.

Mr Putin recently showed a rare example of caving in to popular pressure - by cutting the cost of buying chicken and eggs.

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