Second Russian presidential candidate drops out of race immediately after submitting campaign materials

Shortly after submitting the 100,000 signatures that were required for him to join Russia’s presidential race on Wednesday, Andrey Bogdanov, the head of the Russian Party of Freedom and Justice, announced his withdrawal from the race.

“Members of the [State Duma’s] working group [on the intake and inspection of election documents] accepted documents from Andrey Bogdanov this morning, and [then] he wrote a statement announcing his exit from the presidential campaign,” said Russian Central Election Commission deputy chair Nikolai Bulaev.

On Tuesday, Sergey Baburin, who was slated to represent the All-Russian People’s Union in the election, also submitted his signatures before immediately dropping out of the race. He called on voters to support Vladimir Putin.