A Communist candidate gets approval to run in the Russian presidential election
ABC News
Russia’s national elections commission has registered the Communist Party’s candidate to compete with President Vladimir Putin in the March election that Putin is all but certain to win
MOSCOW -- Russia’s national elections commission on Tuesday registered the Communist Party's candidate to compete with President Vladimir Putin in the March election that Putin is all but certain to win.
Nikolai Kharitonov joins two other candidates who were approved for the ballot last week. Kharitonov, a member of the lower house of parliament, has opposed some of Putin's domestic policies but not Russia's military operation in Ukraine.
Although the Communist candidate typically gets the second-highest vote tally, Kharitonov does not present a significant challenge to Putin. As the party's candidate in the 2004 election, he tallied just 13.8%.
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.
