Russian Central Election Commission says it has registered all eight candidates for the March 18 presidential election.
Among the contenders are current Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian Communist party nominee Pavel Grudinin, the head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of Yabloko party Grigory Yavlinksy, the leader of Communists of Russia party, Maxim Suraikin, Russian business ombudsman Boris Titov, the leader of Russian All-People’s Union Sergei Baburin and Russian TV personality Ksenia Sobchak.
Opinion polls show Putin, who has dominated Russian politics for nearly two decades, will comfortably win re-election.
However, a significant minority of voters accuse the Kremlin chief of overseeing a corrupt system that has isolated Russia from the outside world, and many of them have taken part in mass protests organized by Putin critic Alexei Navalny who has been barred from running due to a criminal conviction he says was fabricated
