A voters’ committee gathered at Moscow’s VDNKh amusement park on December 26 to nominate Vladimir Putin as a presidential candidate. Putin did not attend the event.
Russian election law states that independent presidential candidates need the nomination of “initiative groups” composed of at least 500 people. After submitting a formal application to the Central Election Commission, independent candidates must collect 300,000 signatures endorsing their candidacy, in order to appear on the ballot. (Alexey Navalny’s candidacy bid failed when election officials rejected his application.)