Presidential elections were held in Russia from 15 to 17 March 2024. It was the eighth presidential election in the country. The incumbent president Vladimir Putin won with 88% of the vote, the highest percentage in a presidential election in post-Soviet Russia, gaining a fifth term in what was widely viewed as a foregone conclusion. He was inaugurated on 7 May 2024.
In November 2023, Boris Nadezhdin, a former member of the State Duma, became the first person backed by a registered political party to announce his candidacy, running on an anti-war platform. He was followed by incumbent and independent candidate Vladimir Putin in December 2023, who was eligible to seek re-election as a result of the 2020 constitutional amendments. Later the same month, Leonid Slutsky of the Liberal Democratic Party, 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 by the Central Election Commission (CEC). As was the case in the 2018 presidential election, the most prominent opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was barred from running due to a prior criminal conviction seen as politically motivated. Navalny died in prison in February 2024, weeks before the election, under suspicious circumstances. Nadezhdin, despite passing the initial stages of the process, on 8 February 2024, was also 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 was widely regarded as the real reason for his disqualification, although Davankov promised "peace and negotiations on our own terms". As a result, Putin faced no credible opposition. Anti-Putin activists called on voters to spoil their ballot. The elections saw 1.4 million invalid or blank ballots cast, around 1.6% of all votes cast, a 45 percent increase compared to the 2018 elections.
Most international observers did not expect the election to be either free or fair, with Putin having increased political repressions after launching his full-scale war with Ukraine in 2022. The elections were also held in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, as well as in Moldova's Russian-occupied region of Transnistria. In the election, there were reports of irregularities, including ballot stuffing and coercion, with statistical analysis suggesting unprecedented levels of fraud.
Eligibility
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. Until the reform, the prospect of these term limits forcing Putin from office was widely discussed as the 2024 problem. The constitutional reform established a hard limit of two terms overall. However, terms served before the constitutional revision do not count, which gives Putin eligibility for two more presidential terms until 2036.
According to the new version of the Constitution, presidential candidates must: Be at least 35 years old (the requirement has not changed); Be a 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 The individuals below appeared on the ballot.
Name, age,political party Experience Home region Campaign Details Registration dateVladislav 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 2024.5 January 2024Vladimir Putin(71)IndependentIncumbent 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. 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.29 January 2024Leonid Slutsky(56)Liberal Democratic PartyLeader 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 2024.5 January 2024Nikolay Kharitonov(75)Communist PartyMember 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 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.
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.
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 federal subjects 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.
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. 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 confirmed the final number of candidates at four.
+Rejected candidates Potential candidate's name, age,political party Experience Home region Campaign Details Signatures collectedSergey 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. On 2 February, the CEC informed Malinkovich that it had found deficiencies in the signatures he had submitted.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. On 26 December he submitted registration documents to the CEC, which were registered on 28 December. 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. Nadezhdin subsequently appealed the decision at Russia's Supreme Court. Supreme Court appeals Case 1 Initial case submitted on 16 February 2024, and rejected on 21 February Appeal submitted on 26 February, and rejected on 4 March. Cases 2 & 3 Initial cases submitted on 12 February 2024, and rejected on 15 February Appeals submitted on 19 February, and rejected on 26 February
Party congresses and primaries 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 ReferenceUnited Russia17 December 2023VDNKh, MoscowEndorsement of Vladimir PutinLiberal Democratic Party19 December 2023Crocus Expo,Krasnogorsk,Moscow OblastLeonid SlutskyCivic Initiative23 December 2023MoscowBoris NadezhdinCommunist Party23 December 2023Snegiri wellness complex,Rozhdestveno,Moscow OblastNikolay KharitonovA Just Russia – For Truth23 December 2023Holiday Inn Sokolniki, MoscowEndorsement of Vladimir PutinParty of Social Protection23 December 2023MoscowVladimir MikhailovRussian All-People's Union23 December 2023MoscowSergey Baburin (Declined; endorsed Vladimir Putin)Party of Growth24 December 2023Moscow State University, MoscowVladislav DavankovNew PeopleRussian Party of Freedom and Justice24 December 2023MoscowAndrey BogdanovDemocratic Party of Russia25 December 2023MoscowIrina Sviridova (Declined; endorsed Vladimir Putin)Communists of Russia28 December 2023MoscowSergey Malinkovich
Other parties
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, which is higher than the total number of votes Yavlinsky obtained during his most successful run for president (5.55 million). Yabloko later stated that it would not be nominating any candidate. Furthermore, Yavlinsky only managed to gather around a million signatures.
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. 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
In June 2023, a few posters advocating for Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group private military company, were noticed in Krasnodar, with a QR code to a website hinting at the 2024 election. Prigozhin himself denied any relation to such posters and "any political activity in the internet", but fuelled speculation that he was about to go into politics after holding press conferences across Russia and leading the Wagner Group rebellion. He died in a plane crash later that year.