Who are Mr. Putin's 5 heavyweight opponents?
(Baonghean.vn) - Among the 64 applications for the Russian presidential election to date, there are a number of potential candidates in the race to the Kremlin. Below are the faces of 4 candidates who are serious opponents of Mr. Putin.
1. Pavel Grudinin
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| Mr. Grudinin, 57, was approved by the Communist Party of Russia as its candidate for president last month. The director of the Lenin Collective Farm outside Moscow, Mr. Grudinin is not an official member of the Communist Party of Russia. He was first elected by the Left Front movement on December 1, 2017, after winning the Communist Party's primary elections. |
2. Ayna Gamzatova
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| Editor-in-chief of the magazine “Islam”, Ayna Gamzatova is the latest candidate to declare her candidacy for the Russian presidency. She is also the first Muslim woman to register for the top Kremlin post. Gamzatova is the wife and adviser to the leader of the Islamic Republic of Dagestan in Russia. She is said to head the largest Islamic media company in Russia and a charity foundation based in Makhachkala. |
3. Maxim Suraikin
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| Maxim Suraikin, 39, is the leader of the Communist Party of Russia. Last week, he submitted his application to the Central Election Commission to run for the Kremlin in 2018. Suraikin advocates building a defense alliance similar to the former Warsaw Pact, while restoring the Soviet socialist “federal state.” |
4. Mrs. Elvira Agurbash
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| Elvira Agurbash, vice president of a sausage-making company based in the Moscow region, was nominated for Russia’s presidential election last month by the Green Alliance, a party that advocates environmentally friendly policies. Agurbash has pledged to tackle the lack of jobs for working-age Russians, reform the health care system and abolish Russia’s current unified state exam. |
5. Vladimir Zhirinovsky
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| The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Russia has confirmed the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), Vladimir Zhirinovsky, as the first official candidate in the 2018 Russian presidential election. According to RT, the decision to allow Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the LDPR and a veteran Russian populist, to officially become the first candidate to run for the Russian presidency was made during a session of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Russia on December 29, 2017. |
