Russia’s election commission on Monday officially registered President Vladimir Putin as a candidate for the presidential election to be held in March, in which he will possibly win another six-year term.
Vladimir Putin, 71, is running as an independent candidate. He also ran as an independent candidate in 2018.
The Central Election Commission officially allowed Putin to run after reviewing 315,000 signatures collected by his campaign in all 89 regions of Russia. Under Russian election law, independent candidates must submit at least 300,000 signatures to get on the ballot.
Vladimir Putin’s approval rating is around 80 per cent. His supporters say that Putin has restored order, and some of the clout that Russia lost during the chaos of the Soviet collapse in the 1990s.
The commission already has approved three other candidates who were nominated by parties represented in parliament and weren’t required to collect signatures: Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist Party, Leonid Slutsky of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party and Vladislav Davankov of the New People Party.
