 | |
| Campaign | 2018 Russian presidential election |
|---|---|
| Candidate | Vladimir Putin IncumbentPresident of Russia (2000–2008 and 2012–present) Prime Minister of Russia (1999–2000 and 2008–2012) Director of Federal Security Service (1998–1999) |
| Affiliation | Independent |
| Status | Announced: 6 December 2017 Official nominee: 26 December 2017 Registered candidate: 6 February 2018 Won election: 18 March 2018 |
| Headquarters | 36New Arbat Avenue Moscow[1] |
| Key people | Co-chairs: Yelena Shmelyova Sergey Kogogin Alexander Rumyantsev Chief of staff: Andrey Yarin Press Secretary: Andrey Kondrashov |
| Receipts | 400,030,934.98roubles[2] |
| Slogan(s) |  (Strong President, Strong Russia) |
| Website | |
| putin2018.ru | |
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|---|---|---|
Legacy   | ||
The2018 presidential campaign ofVladimir Putin was announced on 6 December 2017, during Putin's speech at theGAZ automobile plant.[3] He is the 4th and incumbentPresident of Russia; previously he was the 33rdPrime Minister of Russia, 2nd President of Russia and 4thFederal Security Service Director.
This campaign is his fourth. Prior to this he successfully participated in elections in2000,2004 and2012.
Vladimir Putin had consistently scored higher than 40% inopinion polls since thelast presidential election. According to an opinion poll conducted in December 2017 by Gallup International, if Putin was not to be on the ballot, 46% wouldn't have known for whom to vote and 19% would have made the ballot paper invalid.[4] Putin was re-elected as the President of the Russian Federation on 18 March 2018.
Putin became the President in 2012. According to theConstitution of Russia he is entitled to another re-election. Until December 2017 it was not clear whether Putin would seek re-election or not. Some political analysts believed that Putin was not going to run, which is why he refused to answer questions about his nomination. Some namedGovernor of Tula OblastAlexey Dyumin as Putin's successor.[5] Others, on the contrary, believed that Putin would participate in the elections, but would announce it as late as possible in order to conduct a short campaign.[6]
It was assumed that Putin would announce his nomination on 14 December 2017, during his annual press conference.[7] However, at the beginning of December 2017, some experts said that Putin would announce his participation in the elections on 6 December, during the Volunteer of Russia 2017 awards. Putin's press SecretaryDmitry Peskov, commenting on these reports said that Putin could announce the nomination any day. On 6 December, after the presentation of awards, Putin declined to answer the question about participation in the elections, saying that in the near future he will decide on whether to participate in the election.[8] A few hours later, speaking to the workers of the GAZ automobile plant, Putin announced that he will again run for president.[9]
In the2012 election, Putin was nominated by theUnited Russia party, which he led at the time. Putin announced that he will run as an independent on 14 December 2017 during his annual press conference.[10] This is the third time he will run as an independent. He will have to collect at least 300,000 signatures in his support, only then will he be admitted to the election.[11]
The official nomination of Putin took place at a meeting of his initiative group on 26 December 2017. The initiative group included 668 people, among them the former Minister of EconomicsAlexander Shokhin, hockey playerAlexander Karelin,Moscow State University rectorViktor Sadovnichy, Director ofBakulev Scientific Center of Cardiovascular SurgeryLeo Boqueria,Senator and Secretary-General ofUnited RussiaAndrey Turchak, the President of Support of RussiaAlexander Kalinin, co-founder ofKaspersky LabNatalya Kaspersky, leader of the partyA Just RussiaSergey Mironov, as well as members of theState Duma and senators.[12][13][14]
On 27 December 2017, Putin submitted documents for participation in the elections to theCentral Election Commission. On 28 December, the CEC registered the initiative group and allowed him to start collecting signatures.[15][16]
On 5 January 2018, signatures started being collected in support of Putin. It was necessary to collect from 300,000 to 315,000 signatures to be admitted to the elections. In each subject of the Russian Federation it was necessary to collect no more than 7,500 signatures.[citation needed]
By 12 January Putin had gathered the required number of signatures, and even exceeded this number by almost 100,000. Putin's staff decided to continue collecting signatures.[17] In total the campaign gathered more than 1.5 million signatures, of which around 315,000 were submitted to the CEC on 29 January.[18]
By 2 February they had been verified - only 232 signatures were deemed invalid.[19]
On 7 February Putin visitedKrasnoyarsk. Although it was officially a work trip many believe it was linked to his campaign. His visit was linked to the preparation to the Universaide, which will be held in the winter of 2019. Before addressing the issue he visited the multi-functional sports center Sopka. During the meeting concerning the issue Putin noted that Russia "without a doubt remains a leader in international sport" - this was the year before Russia was banned from international sport (seeDoping in Russia). Next he went to a council concerning ecological problems. Near the end of his visit he entered the sport watching complex Platinum Arena Krasnoyarsk, where he took photos with training hockey players and met with the three players of the youth team Totem. To conclude his visit he inspected the new terminal of theaeroport Yemelyanovo.[20]
On 8 February President Putin visitedNovosibirsk. The main topic for the visit was the scientific potential of the state. He met with members of SO RAN and congratulated them with the day of science. He visited the nuclear science institute Budker. He met withAndrey Travnikov, who is Acting Governor of Novosibirsk Oblast. He was present at the meeting of the council for education and science, where he revealed a few details of the speech he would give to theFederal Assembly.[21]
During his campaign he refused to take part in any presidential debates personally like he did in previous ones in 2000, 2004 and 2012, citing his spokesman, being "too busy".[22][23][24][25] Though he was presented by his representative and his most presidential campaign is done by his trusted figures.
On 3 March, inMoscow at theLuzhniki stadium held a rally in support of Vladimir Putin. In total, more than 130,000 people came to the rally. The rally was made by confidants of Putin, among whom were star athletes, figures of culture and science. Speaking at the meeting, Vladimir Putin said: "We want to make our country bright, looking forward to the future, because our ancestors lived here, we live, our children live and our children and grandchildren will live. We will do everything to make them happy. For us and apart from us no one else will. But if we do this, the next 10 years, the entire XXI century will be marked by our bright victories. We'll do it!".[26][27]
On 14 March, Vladimir Putin spoke at a rally inSevastopol to mark the anniversary of theCrimean status referendum.[28]
On 18 March, Vladimir Putin voted in the presidential election. He voted at a traditional polling station located in the building of theRussian Academy of Sciences.[29]
Shortly after Putin’s re-election, the appointedRussian government released the plan of the pension reform involving a substantial increase of the nationalretirement age; in October 2018 Putin signed the corresponding bill into law.[30] However, during the presidential campaign, nothing was said by Putin on this subject — so that Russian citizens would not expect any changes in this socially-sensitive area. Moreover, for many years Putin promised not to hike the retirement age, and in several articles published by Russian media before the election, the existence of any intentions to change the pension age until 2030 were denied.[31]
In the aftermath, more than 60% of Russians interpreted his silence as a trick aimed at securing victory in the election, which would have been questionable if he had presented his plan in advance.[32] All this has severely affected Putin’s reputation,Forbes estimated the whole story as cynical and heavily compromising the leader of the nation.[33]
The following political parties support Putin in the election:
The PutinTeam movement was created by ice hockey playerAlexander Ovechkin on 2 November 2017 in support of Vladimir Putin.[45]
In addition to Ovechkin, the PutinTeam movement also includes many Russian sportspeople, actors, musicians and social activists:Evgeni Malkin,Yelena Isinbayeva,Sergey Karjakin,Sergey Tetyukhin,Nikolay Rastorguyev,Polina Gagarina,Ilya Kovalchuk,Nyusha,Andrey Merzlikin,Pavel Bure,Evgeni Plushenko,Nikolay Baskov,Sergei Krikalev,Mikhail Galustyan and others.[46] Anyone can join PutinTeam on the website of movement.
On 10 January 2018, Putin's election headquarters held its first organizational meeting.[47] Putin was present and announced the leaders of the headquarters: head ofKamazSergey Kogogin; head of Sirius center for gifted childrenYelena Shmelyova; and CEO of Rogachev National Medical Research Center for Pediatric OncologyAlexander Rumyantsev.[48]
The chief of staff wasAndrey Yarin.[49]
The press secretary of the headquarters was the journalistAndrey Kondrashov.[50]
According to Russian law, after the inauguration of the elected President of Russia, the incumbent Prime Minister is obliged to resign, and the President has to appoint a new head of government, or re-assign the current one.
According to political analysts, the Prime Minister appointed during the fourth and last term of Putin will most likely be his successor as President in 2024.
In addition, one of the main contenders was the incumbent Prime MinisterDmitry Medvedev, despite the fact that his popularity has declined in 2017 as the result of acorruption scandal, although he still remained the second most popular politician in Russia after Putin.[51][52][53] Some political technologists called his chances of remaining in office close to 100 percent.[54]
In the shortlist of potential candidates for Prime Minister in case of victory of Vladimir Putin, various media, citing its sources included the following people:[55][56][57][58][59]
On 7 May 2018, after being inaugurated, Vladimir Putin proposed to appoint Dmitry Medvedev as Prime Minister again.
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Vladimir Putin, as expected, won the election, gaining 56,430,712 votes (more than 76%).[60] This result was the largest in the history of theRussian presidential elections.
Putin received the greatest share of votes inChechnya,Crimea,Dagestan,Kabardino-Balkaria,Sevastopol andTuva, and in each of these regions he gained more than 90%. InYakutia andAltai Krai, Putin received only over 64% of votes.[61]
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