2024 Russian presidential election

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| <- 2018 | 15–17 March 2024[a] | 2030 ->

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Registered| 114,212,734
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Nominee  | Vladimir Putin | Nikolay Kharitonov |
Party  | Independent | Communist
Alliance  | People's Front |

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|  |
Nominee  | Leonid Slutsky | Vladislav Davankov |
Party  | LDPR | New People
Alliance  |  | SPPS

* * *

| Incumbent President

Vladimir Putin
Independent

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Election logo

A presidential election in Russia will be held on 15–17 March 2024.[1][2][a] This will be the eighth presidential election in the country. If no candidate receives more than half the vote, a second round will take place exactly three weeks later, on 7 April 2024.[4] The winner is scheduled to be inaugurated on 7 May 2024.[5][6]

In November 2023, former member of the State Duma Boris Nadezhdin became the first person backed by a registered political party to announce his candidacy, running on an anti-war platform.[7] He was followed by incumbent and independent candidate Vladimir Putin in December 2023, who is eligible to seek re-election as a result of 2020 constitutional amendments.[8][9][10] Later the same month, Leonid Slutsky of the LDPR, Nikolay Kharitonov of the Communist Party and Vladislav Davankov of New People announced their candidacies.

Other candidates also declared their candidacy but were barred for various reasons. Despite passing the initial stages of the process, on 8 February 2024, Nadezhdin was barred from running. The decision was announced at a special CEC session, citing alleged irregularities in the signatures of voters supporting his candidacy. Nadezhdin's status as the only explicitly anti-war candidate is widely regarded as the real reason for his disqualification, although Vladislav Davankov has also promised "peace and negotiations" with Ukraine.[11][12] With this and Davankov's relatively youthful age contrasting with the aging 71-year-old Putin, he has been described as "the most likely to become the alternative-to-Putin candidate".[13][14][15]

As was the case in the 2018 presidential election, the opposition leader, Alexei Navalny,[16][17][18] was barred from running due to a prior criminal conviction seen as politically motivated. Navalny died in jail in suspicious circumstances[19][20][21][22] in February 2024, one month before the election.[23][24][25]

Many observers do not expect the election to be either free or fair. Instead, they expect the process to be dominated by Putin, who has been accused of increasing political repressions ever since launching his full-scale war with Ukraine in 2022.[26][27][28][29][30]

## Eligibility[edit]

Main article: 2020 amendments to the Constitution of Russia

According to clause 3 of article 81 of the Constitution of Russia, prior to the 2020 constitutional revision, the same person could not hold the position of President of the Russian Federation for more than two consecutive terms, which allowed Vladimir Putin to become president in 2012 for a third term not consecutive with his prior terms.[31] The constitutional reform established a hard limit of two terms overall. However, terms served before the constitutional revision do not count, which gives Vladimir Putin eligibility for two more presidential terms.

According to the new version of the Constitution, presidential candidates must:[32]

* Be at least 35 years old (the requirement has not changed);
* Be resident in Russia for at least 25 years (previously 10 years);
* Not have foreign citizenship or residence permit in a foreign country, neither at the time of the election nor at any time before (new requirement).

## Candidates[edit]

The below individuals will appear on the ballot.[33]

Name, age,
political party  | Experience  | Home region  | Campaign  | Details  | Registration date

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Vladislav Davankov
(40)
New People |  |  | Deputy Chairman of the State Duma
(2021–present)
Member of the State Duma
(2021–present) | Moscow |
(Campaign • Website)  | Davankov was nominated by his party in December 2023 during the party's congress. He was also supported by Party of Growth, which announced that it would merge with New People. Davankov submitted documents to participate in the election on 25 December 2023 and 1 January 2024.[34][35] | 5 January 2024
Vladimir Putin
(71)
Independent  |  |  | Incumbent President of Russia
(2000–2008 and 2012–present)
Prime Minister of Russia
(1999–2000 and 2008–2012)
FSB Director
(1998–1999) | Moscow |
(Campaign • Website)  | During a ceremony to award soldiers in December 2023, Putin announced that he would participate in the election. He is supported by United Russia and A Just Russia – For Truth, among others.

Putin submitted documents to participate in the election on 18 December 2023, which were registered on 20 December.[36][37] The CEC analyzed 60,000 signatures out of the 315,000 submitted by Putin, and found that only 91 (0.15%) were invalid, which is significantly below the 5% threshold.[38]

| 29 January 2024
Leonid Slutsky
(56)
Liberal Democratic Party |  |  | Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
(2022–present)
Member of the State Duma
(1999–present) | Moscow |
(Campaign • Website)  | Slutsky was nominated by his party in December 2023 during the party's congress. He submitted documents to the CEC on 25 December 2023 and 1 January 2024.[39][40] | 5 January 2024
Nikolay Kharitonov
(75)
Communist Party |  |  | Member of the State Duma
(1993–present) | Krasnodar Krai |
(Campaign)  | Kharitonov was nominated by his party in December 2023 during the party's congress. He previously ran in the 2004 presidential election and came second with 13.7% of the vote. Kharitonov submitted documents to participate in the election on 27 December 2023 and 3 January 2024.  | 9 January 2024

### Rejected candidates[edit]

Individuals in this section have had their document submissions accepted by the CEC to register their participation, and later gathered the necessary signatures from voters. The deadline to submit documents was 27 December 2023 for independents and 1 January 2024 for party-based nominations, with the commission already announcing the rejection of some candidates based on alleged issues with their paperwork.[39]

Towards the deadline to submit documents, the CEC stated that 33 potential candidates were intending to be registered as candidates (24 independents and 9 party-based nominations). The commission accepted the documents of 15 candidates.[41]

The next step was to collect signatures by 31 January 2024. Independents had to gather 300,000 signatures from the public in at least 40 of Russia's regions to support their participation and thereby be included on the ballot, while potential candidates nominated by political parties that are not represented in the State Duma or in at least a third of the country's regional parliaments had to gather 100,000 signatures.[42]

Vladimir Putin was the first to achieve this, having gathered more than half a million signatures by 30 December; by 17 January he had gathered 2.5 million signatures.[43][44] He was followed by Davankov, Kharitonov, Slutsky, Nadezhdin and Malinkovich (in no particular order). Others either failed to achieve this or withdrew from the process.

The CEC accepted the signatures of Putin, while rejecting Nadezhdin and Malinkovich on the basis of what it described to be irregularities. Davankov, Kharitonov and Slutsky were not required to collect signatures as they were nominated by political parties represented in the State Duma. This confimed the final number of candidates at four.

Rejected candidates Potential candidate's name, age,
political party  | Experience  | Home region  | Campaign  | Details  | Signatures collected

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Sergey Malinkovich
(48)
Communists of Russia |  |  | Member of the Altai Krai Legislative Assembly
(2021–present)
Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communists of Russia
(2022–present) | Altai Krai | (Campaign)  | On 28 December 2023, Malinkovich was nominated as the candidate for his party. He submitted documents to register with the CEC on 1 January 2024.[45] On 2 February, the CEC informed Malinkovich that it had found deficiencies in the signatures he had submitted.  |

Signatures collected

104,998 / 105,000

[46]

Signatures accepted

96,019 / 105,000

[47]
Boris Nadezhdin
(60)
Civic Initiative |  |  | Member of the Dolgoprudny City Council
(1990–1997, 2019–present)
Founder and President of the Institute of Regional Projects and Legislation Foundation
(2001–present)
Member of the State Duma
(1999–2003) | Moscow Oblast |
(Campaign • Website)  | On 31 October 2023, Nadezhdin announced that he would run from the Civic Initiative party.[48] On 26 December he submitted registration documents to the CEC, which were registered on 28 December.[49] On 8 February 2024, the CEC announced that more than 5% of the signatures it had reviewed were invalid and therefore could not register him as a candidate.[50] Nadezhdin subsequently appealed the decision at Russia's Supreme Court.  |

Signatures collected

105,000 / 105,000

[51]

Signatures accepted

95,587 / 105,000

[47]
Supreme Court appeals[52]

Case 1[b]

* Initial case submitted on February 16, 2024, and rejected on February 21
* Appeal submitted on February 26, and rejected on March 4.

Cases 2 & 3 [c]

* Initial cases submitted on February 12, 2024, and rejected on February 15
* Appeals submitted on February 19, and rejected on February 26

## Party congresses and primaries[edit]

Congresses of political parties are held after the official appointment of election. At the congress, a party can either nominate its own candidate, or support a candidate nominated by another party or an independent candidate. Twelve parties held party congresses in December 2023, at which candidates were either nominated or endorsed.

Party  | Congress date  | Venue  | Nominee  | Reference

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| United Russia | 17 December 2023  | VDNKh, Moscow  | Endorsement of Vladimir Putin | [53]
| Liberal Democratic Party | 19 December 2023  | Crocus Expo,
Krasnogorsk,
Moscow Oblast | Leonid Slutsky | [39]
| Civic Initiative | 23 December 2023  | Moscow  | Boris Nadezhdin | [54]
| Communist Party | 23 December 2023  | Snegiri wellness complex,
Rozhdestveno,
Moscow Oblast  | Nikolay Kharitonov | [55]
| A Just Russia – For Truth | 23 December 2023  | Holiday Inn Sokolniki, Moscow  | Endorsement of Vladimir Putin | [56]
| Party of Social Protection  | 23 December 2023  | Moscow  | Vladimir Mikhailov  | [57]
| Russian All-People's Union | 23 December 2023  | Moscow  | Sergey Baburin
(Declined; endorsed Vladimir Putin) | [58][59]
| Party of Growth | 24 December 2023  | Moscow State University, Moscow  | Vladislav Davankov | [60]
| New People | [61]
| Russian Party of Freedom and Justice | 24 December 2023  | Moscow  | Andrey Bogdanov | [62]
| Democratic Party of Russia | 25 December 2023  | Moscow  | Irina Sviridova
(Declined; endorsed Vladimir Putin) | [63]
| Communists of Russia | 28 December 2023  | Moscow  | Sergey Malinkovich | [64]

### Other parties[edit]

At Yabloko's congress, which took place on 9 December 2023, somewhat unconventionally, the party decided that Grigory Yavlinsky would run for president as its nominee if he obtains 10 million signatures from potential voters,[65] which is higher than the total number of votes Yavlinsky obtained during his most successful run for president (5.55 million).[66] Yabloko later stated that it would not be nominating any candidate.[67] Furthermore, Yavlinsky only managed to gather around a million signatures.[68]

The Left Front stated that it would run a primary election between 22 candidates, but later announced it would not be holding the primary due to threats received from the police.[69] Instead, the party called on their "comrades in the Communist Party" to vote for one of the following to be nominated at the party congress: Pavel Grudinin, Nikolai Bondarenko, Valentin Konovalov, Andrey Klychkov, Sergey Levchenko, Nina Ostanina, Igor Girkin.

## Preparation of public opinion[edit]

According to an investigation published in February 2024 by a coalition of journals including VSquare, Delfi, Expressen and Paper Trail Media, Putin ordered Decree Number 2016, titled "On deputy heads responsible for social and political work of federal government agencies", on 17 February 2023. The decree stated its aim of coordination between the Ministry of Education and Science and other state agencies to "increase the number of voters and the support of the main candidates" in the 2024 presidential election and other elections. Documents from a governmental "non-profit organisation", ANO Integration, highlighted the reference to increasing the number of voters and the support of the main candidates.[70]

The ANO Integration documents presented a plan to create lists of all employees and sub-lists of opinion leaders in institutions within the ministry's responsibility, and to monitor political attitudes and voting preferences and "increas[e] [the employee's] level of socio-political literacy". The documents planned for the preparation of secret instructions for social events in which selected opinion leaders and "experts" would meet with students and teachers in preparation for the election. Martin Kragh [sv] of the Center for East European Studies in Stockholm described the documents by stating, "All these documents show how little the Kremlin believes that people might just spontaneously support the ruling party". Mark Galeotti, a British historian, lecturer and writer, described the process as "pre-rigging" the election in order to minimise the amount of manipulation needed in the numbers of votes cast for Putin in the election. He stated, "The Kremlin cannot even trust what mayors and governors tell them about the [political] situation in their region."[70]

When asked by a BBC journalist about his electoral campaign, Nikolay Kharitonov refused to answer why he thought he would be a better candidate than Putin, before proceeding to praise the latter for "trying to solve a lot of the problems of the 1990s" and consolidating the country for "victory in all areas."[71]

## Conduct[edit]

Early voting opened on 26 February and would last until 14 March to allow certain residents in remote areas in 37 regions of Russia as well as in the regions of Ukraine that it annexed following its invasion in 2022 to vote.[72] In the latter areas, a campaign called InformUIK was set up to encourage participation in the election, with its representatives going door-to-door escorted by armed men to compile voter lists and collect ballots from residences. A resident of Kherson Oblast described the elections in his area as a "comedy show", noting that households were being visited by "two locals - one holding a list of voters and the other a ballot box - and a military man with a machine gun".[73]

## Opinion polls[edit]

After nominations of potential candidates Fieldwork date  | Polling firm  |  |  |  |  |  | Others  | Undecided  | Abstention

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Putin | ~~Nadezhdin~~ | Kharitonov | Slutsky | Davankov
|  |  |  |
2–3 Mar 2024  | VCIOM | 60% | Banned | 3%  | 2%  | 5%  | 2%  | 17%  | 11%
10–18 Feb 2024  | CIPKR | 62% | 6%  | 3%  | 4%  | 7%  | 5%  | 13%
16 Feb 2024  | Alexei Navalny dies while serving a 19-year prison sentence
15 Feb 2024  | VCIOM | 61% | Banned | 3%  | 2%  | 3%  | 2%  | 17%  | 13%
14 Feb 2024  | VCIOM | 64% | 4%  | 3%  | 5%  | 2%  | 2%  | 2%
9–11 Feb 2024  | FOM | 74% | 3%  | 3%  | 2%  | 1%  | 10%  | 5%
8 Feb 2024  | VCIOM | 57% | 3%  | 3%  | 4%  | 2%  | 18%  | 14%
8 Feb 2024  | Central Election Commission bars Nadezhdin from participating in the elections
1–7 Feb 2024  | ExtremeScan | 63% | 6%  | —  | —  | —  | 8%  | 12%  | 11%
27–30 Jan 2024  | Russian Field | 62.2% | 7.8%  | 2.3%  | 1.9%  | 1.0%  | 2.5%  | 7.8%  | 12.8%
25–30 Jan 2024  | ExtremeScan | 61% | 6%  | 2%  | 1%  | —  | 2%  | 17%  | 11%
11–28 Jan 2024  | CIPKR | 60% | 7%  | 4%  | 3%  | 0.3%  | 3%  | 7%  | 15%
Before the start of nominations of potential candidates Fieldwork date  | Polling firm  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | Others  | Undecided  | Abstention

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Putin | Grudinin | Zyuganov | ~~Zhirinovsky~~ | Slutsky | ~~Navalny~~ | Shoigu | Lavrov | Medvedev | Sobyanin | Dyumin | Volodin | Mishustin | ~~Furgal~~ | Platoshkin | Bondarenko | Mironov | ~~Prigozhin~~
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Dec 2023  | VCIOM | 42.7% | 1.6%  | 3.8%  | Deceased | —  | 1.2%  | 8.7%  | 14.3%  | —  | —  | —  | 2.9%  | 18.8%  | —  | 0.7%  | 0.8%  | 1.8%  | Deceased | 1.2%  | 37.2%
Nov 2023  | VCIOM | 37.3% | 1.4%  | 3.0%  | —  | 1.3%  | 8%  | 15.4%  | —  | —  | —  | 2.7%  | 16.6%  | —  | 0.8%  | 0.8%  | 1.7%  | 1.3%  | 42%
23–29 Nov 2023  | Levada Center | 58.0% | 0.5%  | 1.3%  | 0.5%  | —  | —  | 0.3%  | 0.2%  | 0.3%  | —  | —  | 0.5%  | —  | —  | 0.2%  | 0.4%  | 0.8%  | 31.9%  | 4.8%
Oct 2023  | VCIOM | 37.3% | 1.7%  | 3.0%  | —  | 1.4%  | 7.2%  | 15.3%  | —  | —  | —  | 3.1%  | 15.6%  | —  | 0.7%  | 0.9%  | 1.6%  | 1.7%  | 42.2%
Sep 2023  | VCIOM | 36% | 1.4%  | 3.6%  | —  | 1.8%  | 7.3%  | 14.7%  | —  | —  | —  | 2.7%  | 15.3%  | —  | 0.7%  | 0.9%  | 1.7%  | 1.8%  | 42.9%
2–10 Sep 2023  | Russian Field | 29.9% | 1.3%  | 0.6%  | —  | 1.7%  | 0.5%  | 0.6%  | —  | 0.6%  | —  | —  | 1.1%  | —  | 0.6%  | —  | —  | 23.6%  | 32.2%  | 6.4%
Aug 2023  | VCIOM | 35.5% | 1.5%  | 3.4%  | —  | 1.7%  | 7.1%  | 12.6%  | —  | —  | —  | 3.2%  | 15.4%  | —  | 0.7%  | 0.7%  | 1.7%  | 1.7%  | 43.9%
23 Aug 2023  | Wagner Group plane crash including leader Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a crash
1–9 Aug 2023  | CIPKR | 60% | 4%  | 2%  | Deceased |  | 4%  | 2%  | —  | 1%  | —  | —  |  | 3%  | —  | —  | —  |  | —  | 11%  | 7%  | 3%
Jul 2023  | VCIOM | 37.1% | 1.3%  | 3.2%  | —  | 1.5%  | 6.9%  | 13.9%  | —  | —  | —  | 3.0%  | 16.8%  | —  | 0.8%  | 0.8%  | 1.7%  | —  | 2.0%  | 42.1%
20–26 Jul 2023  | Levada Center | 44% | —  | 3%  |  | 1%  | 7%  | 13%  | 3%  | 4%  | —  |  | 18%  | —  | —  | —  |  | —  | 7%  | 19%  | 5.9%
Jun 2023  | VCIOM | 37.1% | 1.4%  | 3.4%  | —  | 1.7%  | 8.9%  | 14.1%  |  |  |  | 3.4%  | 15.5%  | —  | 0.8%  | 0.5%  | 1.7%  |  | 1.9%  | 41.4%
22–28 Jun 2023  | Levada Center | 42% | —  | 4%  |  | —  | 8%  | 14%  | 4%  | 4%  | —  |  | 18%  | —  | —  | —  |  | 2%  | 5%  |  |
23–24 Jun 2023  | Wagner Group rebellion
May 2023  | VCIOM | 37.1% | 1.2%  | 3.9%  | Deceased | —  | 1.3%  | 10.0%  | 14.7%  |  |  |  | 3.2%  | 15.5%  |  | 0.7%  | 0.8%  | 2.0%  |  | 1.7%  | 41.2%
13–16 May 2023  | Russian Field | 30.2% | 1.1% | —  |  | 2.8% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 0.8% | —  |  | 0.4% | 1.1% | 0.5% | 0.4%  |  | 3% | 26.4% | 28.8% | 5.9%
Apr 2023  | VCIOM | 38.7% | 1.4%  | 3.6%  | —  | 1.2%  | 12.1%  | 17.6%  |  |  |  | 2.8%  | 16.5%  |  | 0.9%  | 0.8%  | 2.3%  |  | 1.7%  | 39.3%
Mar 2023  | VCIOM | 38.7% | 1.3%  | 3.7%  | —  | 1.6%  | 11.5%  | 16.3%  |  |  |  | 3.2%  | 17.4%  |  | 0.8%  | 0.8%  | 2.2%  |  | 2.2%  | 39.6%
Feb 2023  | VCIOM | 37.5% | 1.4%  | 4.4%  | —  | 1.8%  | 11.2%  | 16.3%  |  |  |  | 3.2%  | 14.3%  |  | 0.9%  | 0.8%  | 2.6%  |  | 2.0%  | 39.8%
21–28 Feb 2023  | Levada Center | 43% | 1% | 5%  |  | 1% | 12% | 15% | 3% | 3% | —  |  | 17% | 1% | — | —  |  | — | 6% | 17% | 16%
Jan 2023  | VCIOM | 37.1% | 1.5%  | 3.2%  | —  | 1.9%  | 13.4%  | 15.2%  |  |  |  | 4.1%  | 14.9%  |  | 1.0%  | 0.9%  | 1.8%  |  | 2.4%  | 40.1%
24–30 Nov 2022  | Levada Center | 39% | — | 5%  |  | 1% | 12% | 14% | 3% | 3% | —  |  | 17% | — | — | 1%  |  | — | 5% | 7% | 18%
30 Sep 2022  | Russia annexes part of southeastern Ukraine
21–27 Jul 2022  | Levada Center | 43% | — | 4% | Deceased |  | 1% | 14% | 14% | 3% | 4% | —  |  | 16% | — | — | 1%  |  | — | 5% | 16% | 16%
6 Apr 2022  | Liberal Democratic Party of Russia leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky dies[74]
24 Feb 2022  | Beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
21 Feb 2022  | Russia announces international recognition of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic
10–28 Dec 2021  | CIPKR | — | 3% | — | 0%  |  | 5% | 18% | — | 2% | 1% | 1%  |  | 15% | — | — | —  |  | — | 24% | 31%
25 Nov–1 Dec 2021  | Levada Center | 32% | 1% | 2% | 3%  |  | 1% | 1% | — | — | — | —  |  | 1% | — | — | 1%  |  | — | 3% | 21% | 27%
22–28 Apr 2021  | Levada Center | 40% | 1% | 2% | 4%  |  | 2% | — | — | — | — | —  |  | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1%  |  | — | 3% | 18% | 23%
17 Jan 2021  | Arrest of Alexei Navalny
Dec 2020  | CIPKR | — | 5% | — | 1%  |  | 2% | 18% | — | 4% | 2% | 0%  |  | 8% | — | — | —  |  | – | 33% | 27%
19–26 Nov 2020  | Levada Center | 39% | 1% | 2% | 6%  |  | 2% | 1% | — | — | — | —  |  | 1% | — | 1% | —  |  | — | 2% | 16% | 24%
20–26 Aug 2020  | Levada Center | 40% | 1% | 1% | 4%  |  | 2% | 1% | — | — | — | —  |  | 1% | 1% | 1% | —  |  | — | 2% | 26% | 22%
09 Jul 2020  | Arrest of Sergei Furgal
18–23 Dec 2019  | CIPKR | — | 9% | — | 4%  |  | — | 24% | — | 11% | 5% | 1%  |  | — | — | — | —  |  | – | 26% | 20%
12–18 Dec 2019  | Levada Center | 38% | 3% | 2% | 4%  |  | 2% | 1% | — | 1% | — | —  |  | — | — | — | —  |  | – | 2% | 26% | 22%
18–24 Jul 2019  | Levada Center | 40% | 3% | 1% | 3%  |  | 1% | — | — | <1% | — | —  |  | — | — | — | —  |  | – | 2% | 31% | 19%
21–27 Mar 2019  | Levada Center | 41% | 4% | 2% | 5%  |  | 1% | 1% | — | — | — | —  |  | — | — | — | —  |  | – | 3% | 26% | 19%
18–24 Oct 2018  | Levada Center | 40% | 3% | 2% | 4%  |  | 1% | <1% | <1% | — | — | —  |  | — | — | — | —  |  | – | 2% | 27% | 23%

## Results[edit]

Candidate| Party| Votes| %

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| Vladimir Putin| Independent[d]|
| Nikolay Kharitonov| Communist Party|
| Leonid Slutsky| Liberal Democratic Party|
| Vladislav Davankov| New People|
Total|
Registered voters/turnout| 114,212,734| –

## Reactions[edit]

### Domestic[edit]

On 6 August 2023, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told The New York Times that "our presidential election is not really democracy, it is costly bureaucracy. Mr. Putin will be re-elected next year with more than 90 percent of the vote". Later he clarified that this was his personal opinion.[75] In an interview with the RBK news agency, Peskov said that Russia "theoretically" does not need to hold presidential elections because "it’s obvious that Putin will be reelected."[76]

On 6 November 2023, journalist Yekaterina Duntsova announced her intention to run for the presidency in the 2024 election; she said she would run as an independent candidate on an anti-war platform.[77] The next month, her nomination documents were rejected by the Central Election Commission.[78]

In November 2023, nationalist ex-militia commander Igor Girkin announced his intention to run as a candidate in the 2024 elections, describing elections in Russia as a "sham" in which "the only winner [referring to Putin] is known in advance".[79]

In January 2024, citing unidentified sources in the Kremlin, the independent news outlet Vyorstka reported that the CEC, at the behest of the Kremlin, will likely reject Boris Nadezhdin’s registration due to his criticism of Putin and anti-war stances.[80] In late January 2024, a source in the Putin administration told the Latvia-based news outlet Meduza: "There’s a portion of the electorate that wants the war to end. If [Putin’s opponent in the elections] decides to cater to this demand, they may get a decent percentage. And [the Putin administration] doesn’t need that."[81] Russian state media intensified a smear campaign against Nadezhdin in the weeks leading up to the election. On 30 January 2024, Kremlin propagandist and television presenter Vladimir Solovyov warned Nadezhdin: "I feel bad for Boris. The fool didn’t realize that he’s not being set up to run for president but for a criminal case on charges of betraying the Motherland."[81]

After Russia's main opposition leader Alexei Navalny suspiciously[82][83][84][85] died in February 2024 just before the election, his widow Yulia Navalnaya pledged to continue his work, asking Russians to "stand beside me" and speaking at the European Parliament.[86][87]

Following the CEC's decision to ban him from running, Nadezhdin wrote in his Telegram channel: "I do not agree with the decision of the CEC… Participating in the presidential election in 2024 is the most important political decision in my life. I am not backing down from my intentions."[88]

On 1 February 2024, jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and his allies called on supporters to protest Putin and the invasion of Ukraine during the third day of the presidential election by all going to vote against Putin at the same time.[89] After the death of Navalny, there were calls from Andrius Kubilius, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Yulia Navalnaya for the EU to recognize the Russian elections as illegitimate.[90][91][92] Navalnaya called for Russians critical of Putin to joint the "Noon Against Putin" initiative to form long queues at polling stations at noon on 17 March before proceeding to vote for anyone other than Putin, spoil their ballots or cast Navalny's name.[93]

### International[edit]

In an interview with TV3 on 4 March 2024, Latvian justice minister Inese Lībiņa-Egnere implied that Russians in the country who would participate in the election to be held in the Russian embassy in Riga could face criminal liability for justifying the invasion of Ukraine under Latvian law.[94] On 11 March, Armands Ruks, the head of the Latvian State Police announced that voters at the embassy would be subjected to police screenings before entering.[95]

The Russian ambassador to Moldova, Oleg Vasnetsov [ru], was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Moldova on 12 March following Russia's decision to open six polling stations in occupied Transnistria for Russia's presidential election, which Moldovan foreign minister Mihai Popșoi described as "unacceptable". The Moldovan government had previously agreed to open only one polling station in the Russian embassy [ro; ru] in Chișinău as per international law as it claimed.[96]

## Incidents[edit]

On the first day of early voting in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine on 27 February 2024, two bombs were detonated at the local offices of the United Russia party and near a polling station in Nova Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast.[73] On 6 March, an official of the Central Election Commission in the Russian-occupied city of Berdiansk, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, was killed by a car bomb, according to Ukrainian officials.[97] When asked about the incident, the Ukrainian appointed governor of the oblast, Ivan Fedorov, attributed the attack to "our resistance", adding that they were linked to Ukrainian secret services and that "it is abnormal when our citizens collaborate with Russians".[73]

During the 2024 Western Russia incursion on 12 March, the Sibir Battalion, an armed Russian opposition group based in Ukraine, published a video condemning the elections, saying that "Ballots and polling stations in this case are fiction.“[98] A member of the Freedom of Russia Legion, which also participated in the attacks, acknowledged that they were "timed with the so-called elections" and referred to it as a "voting method."[99] Putin also described the the incursion as an attempt to "disrupt" the election and "interfere with the normal process of expressing the will of citizens."[100]

## Notes[edit]

1. ^ a b Early voting had taken place from 26 February in several remote regions of Russian Far East as well as occupied territories of Ukraine.[3]
2. ^ The case deals with CEC's refusal to register Nadezhdin as a candidate for the election and seeks his direct reinstating.
3. ^ The two cases are concerned on CEC's apparent procedural faults while checking the selected signatures. If both cases are upholded, Nadezhdin will have enough valid signatures to be reinstated as a candidate.
4. ^ Supported by the People's Front, United Russia, A Just Russia – For Truth, Rodina, Russian Party of Pensioners for Social Justice, Party of Business, Russian All-People's Union and Democratic Party of Russia

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