"It will be difficult to defeat Putin" says Boris Nadezhdin, the Civic Initiative Party candidate in upcoming Russian presidential elections, speaking to AFP in his flat outside Moscow. The 60-year-old was a liberal lawmaker who moved into political circles accepted by the Kremlin, but he has now emerged as an unlikely candidate running for "peace" ahead of the vote, a candidate for whom thousands of Russians have been queuing to register their support and propel him onto the ballot. Pledging to end the conflict in Ukraine, Nadezhdin believes "we will have to talk with a coalition of Western leaders...unlikely to talk to Putin, but they will talk to me." IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES