Today almost 111 million Russian citizens take part in presidential elections. The results are expected tomorrow.
There are 8 candidates:
- Grigory Yavlinsky, founder of the Yabloko party. Yabloko party was established in the 1990s and Yavlinsky ran for presidency several times. His party stands for good relations with Europe, civil liberties and free market.
- Sergei Baburin from the All-People’s Union party. He was against the desintegration of the Soviet Union and he stands for boosting Russian geopolitical power in Euroasia.
- Boris Titov, Putin’s representative for protection of the rights of entrepreneurs.
- Pavel Grudinin, a Communist Party candidate. He is an entrepreneur running a farm outside Moscow following the Soviet cooperatives model introduced in 1988.
- Vladimir Putin, incumbent Russian President. He has been in power in both the presidency role and as prime minister since 1999
- Ksenia Sobchak, from the Civil Initiative party (established in 2012) is the only female candidate. She is known as Russian Paris Hilton. She acts now as a political activist. Her father was closely connected to Putin.
- Maxim Suraykin, chairman of Communists of Russia party. He stands for socialist economy stemming from the Soviet Era and nationalization of banks.
- Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. He is a right-wing nationalist and populist. He has run for president 5 times so far.
Photo: Wikipedia, Elections logo
Sources; CNN and Sputnik News