Vladimir Putin | Russia election | Who are the first two candidates authorized to face Putin in the election? the world

This Friday the 5th National Election Commission of Russia Authorized the registration of Leonid Slutsky of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party and Vladislav Davankov of the New People’s Party as candidates for the March 2024 presidential election in which the incumbent is the clear favorite. Vladimir PutinWho will try for re-election.

See: Elections 2024 in US and Russia: Strong race between Biden and Trump, while Putin assures victory

The master and lord of Russian politics since assuming the presidency in 2000, Putin’s last re-election was recorded in 2018 when he won with 76.69% of the vote compared to 11.77% for his closest rival Pavel Grudini.

A new law signed in 2021 also opened the door for him to continue leading Russia until 2036.

For elections to be held between March 15 and 17, Putin will face — for now — two politicians who agree both on his national foreign policy vision and on the inner workings of the legislature controlled by the ruling United Russia.

A month ago, the National Election Commission rejected the registration of journalist Yekaterina Duntsova, who is in favor of ending the war in Ukraine; and recently reported that the registration of Nikolai Kharitonov, Putin’s rival in the 2004 election, had not yet been accepted.

All these positions, and the profiles of his virtual electoral rivals, cast doubt on Putin’s efforts to democratize the clearly guaranteed elections.

– Two weak rivals –

Born in Moscow 56 years ago and an economist by profession, Slutsky worked as a banker and adviser to the mayor of Moscow before becoming a deputy in December 1999. He has since renewed his position in Duma elections after the election and became mayor in 2016. Chairman of Parliament’s Committee on International Affairs.

From his position he has defended and supported the Kremlin’s foreign policy on more than one occasion. This made Slutsky one of the first people sanctioned by the United States government in 2014, following the Crimean annexation referendum. With the resulting crisis on the peninsula, Canada and the European Union added them to their own sanctioned lists.

An investigation by the independent channel Dozed also revealed that Slutsky financed pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk through one of his foundations linked to the Russian Orthodox Church.

In 2018, Slutsky was accused of sexual harassment by three journalists and a television production company. However, and despite the growing number of voices against the parliamentarian, including a statement by Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zazarova, Slutsky was cleared of the scandal due to the shield provided by the Duma commission which determined that there had been no “violation of conduct” on his part.

Devankov, on the other hand, serves as the Duma’s deputy speaker and his formation, known as the New People, holds 15 of the chamber’s 450 seats.

Born 39 years ago in the city of Smolensk, Davankov worked at the Faberlik company, also founded by businessman and politician Alexei Nechev, who later led him to the New People’s Party, thus reaching the Duma in 2021.

A month later he was appointed Deputy Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament by decision of Vyacheslav Volodin. In 2022 he was sanctioned by the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Ukraine, as he was one of the officials who ratified Putin’s decision to establish an alliance between Russia and Russia. and separatist rebels from Donetsk and Lugansk.

Moreover, the West accuses him of “providing political and economic support to Russia’s illegal attempts to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory through a false referendum.”