2024 Russian presidential election

2024 Russian presidential election

15–17 March 2024
Registered	114,212,734
Nominee Vladimir Putin Nikolay Kharitonov Party Independent CPRF Alliance People's Front   Nominee Leonid Slutsky Vladislav Davankov Party LDPR New People Alliance SPPS
Incumbent President Vladimir Putin Independent

Election logo

The presidential election in Russia will be held on 15–17 March 2024. This will be the eighth presidential election in the country. If no candidate receives more than half the vote, a second round will take place exactly three weeks later, on 7 April 2024. The winner is scheduled to be inaugurated on 7 May 2024.

In November 2023, former member of the State Duma Boris Nadezhdin 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 is eligible to seek re-election as a result of 2020 constitutional amendments. Later the same month, Leonid Slutsky of the LDPR, Nikolay Kharitonov of the Communist Party and Vladislav Davankov of New People announced their candidacies.

Other candidates also declared their candidates but were barred for barred for various reasons. Despite passing the initial stages of the process, on 8 February 2024, Nadezhdin was 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 is widely regarded as the real reason for his disqualification, although Vladislav Davankov has also promised "peace and negotiations" with Ukraine.

As was the case in the 2018 presidential election, the most prominent member of the Russian opposition, Alexei Navalny, was barred from running due to a prior criminal conviction seen as politically motivated. Navalny died in suspicious circumstances in February 2024.

Many observers do not expect the election to be either free or fair. Instead, they expect the process to be dominated by Putin, who has been accused of increasing political repressions ever since launching his full-scale war with Ukraine in 2022.

Eligibility

Main article: 2020 amendments to the Constitution of Russia

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. The constitutional reform established a hard limit of two terms overall. However, terms served before the constitutional revision do not count, which gives Vladimir Putin eligibility for two more presidential terms.

According to the new version of the Constitution, presidential candidates must:

• Be at least 35 years old (the requirement has not changed);
• Be 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 below individuals will appear on the ballot.

Name, age, political party			Experience	Home region	Campaign	Details	Registration date
Vladislav 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 2024
Vladimir Putin (71) Independent			Incumbent 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 2024
Leonid Slutsky (56) Liberal Democratic Party			Leader 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 2024
Nikolay Kharitonov (75) Communist Party			Member 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 submitted documents to the CEC to register their participation. These documents had to be submitted to the CEC by 27 December 2023 inclusive (for independents), while party-based nominations had until 1 January 2024 to do this.

In late December, the CEC stated that 33 potential candidates had declared an intention to take part in the elections (24 independents and nine party-based nominations); out of them, 15 individuals submitted documents to register as candidates (six independents and nine party-based nominations).

The next step is to collect signatures by 31 January 2024. Independents have to gather from 300,000 to 315,000 signatures from the public in at least 40 of Russia's regions 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 must gather from 100,000 to 105,000 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.

List of Rejected candidates

Potential candidate's name, age, political party			Experience	Home region	Campaign	Details	Signatures collected
Sergey 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.	Signatures collected 104,998 / 105,000 Signatures accepted 96,019 / 105,000
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 has stated that he will appeal the decision at Russia's Supreme Court.	Signatures collected 105,000 / 105,000 Signatures accepted 95,587 / 105,000 Supreme Court appeals Case 1 Initial case submitted on February 16, 2024, and rejected on February 21 Appeal yet to be submitted Cases 2 & 3 Initial cases submitted on February 12, 2024, and rejected on February 15 Appeals submitted on February 19, and rejected on February 26

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	Reference
	United Russia	17 December 2023	VDNKh, Moscow	Endorsement of Vladimir Putin
	Liberal Democratic Party	19 December 2023	Crocus Expo, Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast	Leonid Slutsky
	Civic Initiative	23 December 2023	Moscow	Boris Nadezhdin
	Communist Party	23 December 2023	Snegiri wellness complex, Rozhdestveno, Moscow Oblast	Nikolay Kharitonov
	A Just Russia – For Truth	23 December 2023	Holiday Inn Sokolniki, Moscow	Endorsement of Vladimir Putin
	Party of Social Protection	23 December 2023	Moscow	Vladimir Mikhailov
	Russian All-People's Union	23 December 2023	Moscow	Sergey Baburin (Declined; endorsed Vladimir Putin)
	Party of Growth	24 December 2023	Moscow State University, Moscow	Vladislav Davankov
	New People
	Russian Party of Freedom and Justice	24 December 2023	Moscow	Andrey Bogdanov
	Democratic Party of Russia	25 December 2023	Moscow	Irina Sviridova (Declined; endorsed Vladimir Putin)
	Communists of Russia	28 December 2023	Moscow	Sergey 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

According to an investigation published in February 2024 by a coalition of journals including VSquare, Delfi, Expressen and Paper Trail Media, Putin ordered Decree Number 2016, titled "On deputy heads responsible for social and political work of federal government agencies", on 17 February 2023. The decree stated its aim of coordination between the Ministry of Education and Science and other state agencies to "increase the number of voters and the support of the main candidates" in the 2024 presidential election and other elections. Documents from a governmental "non-profit organisation", ANO Integration, highlighted the reference to increasing the number of voters and the support of the main candidates.

The ANO Integration documents presented a plan to create lists of all employees and sub-lists of opinion leaders in institutions within the ministry's responsibility, and to monitor political attitudes and voting preferences and "increas[e] [the employee's] level of socio-political literacy". The documents planned for the preparation of secret instructions for social events in which selected opinion leaders and "experts" would meet with students and teachers in preparation for the election. Martin Kragh of the Center for East European Studies in Stockholm described the documents by stating, "All these documents show how little the Kremlin believes that people might just spontaneously support the ruling party". Mark Galeotti, a British historian, lecturer and writer, described the process as "pre-rigging" the election in order to minimise the amount of manipulation needed in the numbers of votes cast for Putin in the election. He stated, "The Kremlin cannot even trust what mayors and governors tell them about the [political] situation in their region."

Conduct

Early voting opened on 26 February and would last until 14 March to allow certain residents in remote areas in 37 regions of Russia as well as in the regions of Ukraine that it annexed following its invasion in 2022 to vote.

Opinion polls

After nominations of potential candidates

Fieldwork date	Polling firm						Others	Undecided	Abstention
		Putin	Nadezhdin	Kharitonov	Slutsky	Davankov
21 Feb 2024	Supreme Court refuses to satisfy Nadezhdin's appeal to challenge the refusal of registration.
10–18 Feb 2024	CIPKR	62%	—	6%	3%	4%	7%	5%	13%
16 Feb 2024	Alexei Navalny dies while serving a 19-year prison sentence
15 Feb 2024	VCIOM	61%	—	3%	2%	3%	2%	17%	13%
15 Feb 2024	Supreme Court refuses to satisfy Nadezhdin's appeal to approve remaining signatures for his registration
14 Feb 2024	VCIOM	64%	—	4%	3%	5%	2%	2%	2%
9–11 Feb 2024	FOM	74%	—	3%	3%	2%	1%	10%	5%
8 Feb 2024	VCIOM	57%	—	3%	3%	4%	2%	18%	14%
8 Feb 2024	Central Election Commission bars Nadezhdin from participating in the elections
1–7 Feb 2024	ExtremeScan	63%	6%	—	—	—	8%	12%	11%
27–30 Jan 2024	Russian Field	62.2%	7.8%	2.3%	1.9%	1.0%	2.5%	7.8%	12.8%
25–30 Jan 2024	ExtremeScan	61%	6%	2%	1%	—	2%	17%	11%
11–28 Jan 2024	CIPKR	60%	7%	4%	3%	0.3%	3%	7%	15%

Before the start of nominations of potential candidates

Fieldwork date	Polling firm																			Others	Undecided	Abstention
		Putin	Grudinin	Zyuganov	Zhirinovsky	Slutsky	Navalny	Shoigu	Lavrov	Medvedev	Sobyanin	Dyumin	Volodin	Mishustin	Furgal	Platoshkin	Bondarenko	Mironov	Prigozhin
Dec 2023	VCIOM	42.7%	1.6%	3.8%	Deceased	—	1.2%	8.7%	14.3%	—	—	—	2.9%	18.8%	—	0.7%	0.8%	1.8%	Deceased	1.2%	37.2%
Nov 2023	VCIOM	37.3%	1.4%	3.0%		—	1.3%	8%	15.4%	—	—	—	2.7%	16.6%	—	0.8%	0.8%	1.7%		1.3%	42%
23–29 Nov 2023	Levada Center	58.0%	0.5%	1.3%		0.5%	—	—	0.3%	0.2%	0.3%	—	—	0.5%	—	—	0.2%	0.4%		0.8%	31.9%	4.8%
Oct 2023	VCIOM	37.3%	1.7%	3.0%		—	1.4%	7.2%	15.3%	—	—	—	3.1%	15.6%	—	0.7%	0.9%	1.6%		1.7%	42.2%
Sep 2023	VCIOM	36%	1.4%	3.6%		—	1.8%	7.3%	14.7%	—	—	—	2.7%	15.3%	—	0.7%	0.9%	1.7%		1.8%	42.9%
2–10 Sep 2023	Russian Field	29.9%	1.3%	0.6%		—	1.7%	0.5%	0.6%	—	0.6%	—	—	1.1%	—	0.6%	—	—		23.6%	32.2%	6.4%
Aug 2023	VCIOM	35.5%	1.5%	3.4%		—	1.7%	7.1%	12.6%	—	—	—	3.2%	15.4%	—	0.7%	0.7%	1.7%		1.7%	43.9%
23 Aug 2023	Wagner Group plane crash including leader Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a crash
1–9 Aug 2023	CIPKR	60%	4%	2%	Deceased		4%	2%	—	1%	—	—		3%	—	—	—		—	11%	7%	3%
Jul 2023	VCIOM	37.1%	1.3%	3.2%		—	1.5%	6.9%	13.9%	—	—	—	3.0%	16.8%	—	0.8%	0.8%	1.7%	—	2.0%	42.1%
20–26 Jul 2023	Levada Center	44%	—	3%			1%	7%	13%	3%	4%	—		18%	—	—	—		—	7%	19%	5.9%
Jun 2023	VCIOM	37.1%	1.4%	3.4%		—	1.7%	8.9%	14.1%				3.4%	15.5%	—	0.8%	0.5%	1.7%		1.9%	41.4%
22–28 Jun 2023	Levada Center	42%	—	4%			—	8%	14%	4%	4%	—		18%	—	—	—		2%	5%
23–24 Jun 2023	Wagner Group rebellion
May 2023	VCIOM	37.1%	1.2%	3.9%	Deceased	—	1.3%	10.0%	14.7%				3.2%	15.5%		0.7%	0.8%	2.0%		1.7%	41.2%
13–16 May 2023	Russian Field	30.2%	1.1%	—			2.8%	0.4%	0.5%	0.3%	0.8%	—		0.4%	1.1%	0.5%	0.4%		3%	26.4%	28.8%	5.9%
Apr 2023	VCIOM	38.7%	1.4%	3.6%		—	1.2%	12.1%	17.6%				2.8%	16.5%		0.9%	0.8%	2.3%		1.7%	39.3%
Mar 2023	VCIOM	38.7%	1.3%	3.7%		—	1.6%	11.5%	16.3%				3.2%	17.4%		0.8%	0.8%	2.2%		2.2%	39.6%
Feb 2023	VCIOM	37.5%	1.4%	4.4%		—	1.8%	11.2%	16.3%				3.2%	14.3%		0.9%	0.8%	2.6%		2.0%	39.8%
21–28 Feb 2023	Levada Center	43%	1%	5%			1%	12%	15%	3%	3%	—		17%	1%	—	—		—	6%	17%	16%
Jan 2023	VCIOM	37.1%	1.5%	3.2%		—	1.9%	13.4%	15.2%				4.1%	14.9%		1.0%	0.9%	1.8%		2.4%	40.1%
24–30 Nov 2022	Levada Center	39%	—	5%			1%	12%	14%	3%	3%	—		17%	—	—	1%		—	5%	7%	18%
30 Sep 2022	Russia annexes part of southeastern Ukraine
21–27 Jul 2022	Levada Center	43%	—	4%	Deceased		1%	14%	14%	3%	4%	—		16%	—	—	1%		—	5%	16%	16%
6 Apr 2022	Liberal Democratic Party of Russia leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky dies
24 Feb 2022	Beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
21 Feb 2022	Russia announces international recognition of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic
10–28 Dec 2021	CIPKR	—	3%	—	0%		5%	18%	—	2%	1%	1%		15%	—	—	—		—	24%	31%
25 Nov–1 Dec 2021	Levada Center	32%	1%	2%	3%		1%	1%	—	—	—	—		1%	—	—	1%		—	3%	21%	27%
22–28 Apr 2021	Levada Center	40%	1%	2%	4%		2%	—	—	—	—	—		1%	1%	1%	1%		—	3%	18%	23%
17 Jan 2021	Arrest of Alexei Navalny
Dec 2020	CIPKR	—	5%	—	1%		2%	18%	—	4%	2%	0%		8%	—	—	—		–	33%	27%
19–26 Nov 2020	Levada Center	39%	1%	2%	6%		2%	1%	—	—	—	—		1%	—	1%	—		—	2%	16%	24%
20–26 Aug 2020	Levada Center	40%	1%	1%	4%		2%	1%	—	—	—	—		1%	1%	1%	—		—	2%	26%	22%
09 Jul 2020	Arrest of Sergei Furgal
18–23 Dec 2019	CIPKR	—	9%	—	4%		—	24%	—	11%	5%	1%		—	—	—	—		–	26%	20%
12–18 Dec 2019	Levada Center	38%	3%	2%	4%		2%	1%	—	1%	—	—		—	—	—	—		–	2%	26%	22%
18–24 Jul 2019	Levada Center	40%	3%	1%	3%		1%	—	—	<1%	—	—		—	—	—	—		–	2%	31%	19%
21–27 Mar 2019	Levada Center	41%	4%	2%	5%		1%	1%	—	—	—	—		—	—	—	—		–	3%	26%	19%
18–24 Oct 2018	Levada Center	40%	3%	2%	4%		1%	<1%	<1%	—	—	—		—	—	—	—		–	2%	27%	23%

Results

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Vladimir Putin	Independent
	Nikolay Kharitonov	Communist Party
	Leonid Slutsky	Liberal Democratic Party
	Vladislav Davankov	New People
Total
Registered voters/turnout			114,212,734	–

Reactions

On 6 August 2023, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told The New York Times that "our presidential election is not really democracy, it is costly bureaucracy. Mr. Putin will be re-elected next year with more than 90 percent of the vote". Later he clarified that this was his personal opinion. In an interview with the RBK news agency, Peskov said that Russia "theoretically" does not need to hold presidential elections because "it’s obvious that Putin will be reelected."

On 6 November 2023, journalist Yekaterina Duntsova announced her intention to run for the presidency in the 2024 election; she said she would run as an independent candidate on an anti-war platform. The next month, her nomination documents were rejected by the Central Election Commission.

In November 2023, nationalist ex-militia commander Igor Girkin announced his intention to run as a candidate in the 2024 elections, describing elections in Russia as a "sham" in which "the only winner [referring to Putin] is known in advance".

In January 2024, citing unidentified sources in the Kremlin, the independent news outlet Vyorstka reported that the CEC, at the behest of the Kremlin, will likely reject Boris Nadezhdin’s registration due to his criticism of Putin and anti-war stances. In late January 2024, a source in the Putin administration told the Latvia-based news outlet Meduza: "There’s a portion of the electorate that wants the war to end. If [Putin’s opponent in the elections] decides to cater to this demand, they may get a decent percentage. And [the Putin administration] doesn’t need that." Russian state media intensified a smear campaign against Nadezhdin in the weeks leading up to the election. On 30 January 2024, Kremlin propagandist and television presenter Vladimir Solovyov warned Nadezhdin: "I feel bad for Boris. The fool didn’t realize that he’s not being set up to run for president but for a criminal case on charges of betraying the Motherland."

Following the CEC's decision to bar him from running, Nadezhdin wrote in his Telegram channel: "I do not agree with the decision of the CEC… Participating in the presidential election in 2024 is the most important political decision in my life. I am not backing down from my intentions."

On 1 February 2024, jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and his allies called on supporters to protest President Putin and the invasion of Ukraine during the third day of the presidential election by all going to vote against Putin at the same time.

After the death of Navalny, there were calls from Andrius Kubilius, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Yulia Navalnaya for the EU to recognize the Russian elections as illegitimate.