Communist party candidate gets approval to fight against Putin in upcoming presidential election in Russia

The Communist Party’s candidate to challenge President Vladimir Putin in the election scheduled for March—which Putin is almost certain to win—was registered by Russia’s national elections commission on Tuesday. The two other candidates who were authorized for the ballot last week are joined by Nikolai Kharitonov. Kharitonov, a member of the lower house of parliament, has not supported Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, but he has objected to some of Putin’s domestic policies. Kharitonov does not pose a serious threat to Putin, despite the fact that the Communist candidate usually receives the second-highest percentage of votes. In the 2004 election, he received just 13.8% of the vote as the party’s nominee. Putin has dominated Russian politics since he was first elected to the presidency in 2000. The commission last week approved Leonid Slutsky of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party and Vladislav Davankov of the New People Party for the March 15-17 vote. Both of their parties are largely supportive in parliament of legislation backed by Putin’s power-base United Russia party. A Russian politician calling for peace in Ukraine was rejected last month from the presidential ballot. The elections commission refused to accept Yekaterina Duntsova’s initial nomination by a group of supporters, citing errors in the paperwork, including spelling. The Supreme Court then rejected Duntsova’s appeal against the commission’s decision. Putin is running as an independent, and his campaign headquarters, together with branches of the ruling United Russia party and a political coalition called the People’s Front, have collected signatures in support of his candidacy. Under Russian law, independent candidates must be nominated by at least 500 supporters, and must also gather at least 300,000 signatures from 40 regions or more.