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 four candidates who are serious opponents of Mr. Putin.
1. Pavel Grudinin
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| Mr. Grudinin, 57, was approved by the Russian Communist Party as its candidate for president last month. Holding the position of director of the Lenin Collective Farm enterprise outside Moscow, Mr. Grudinin is not an official member of the Russian Communist Party. He was first elected by the Left Front movement on December 1, 2017, after winning the primary votes of the Russian Communist Party. |
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 of 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 Communists of Russia party. Last week, he submitted his application to the Central Election Commission to run for the Kremlin in 2018. Mr. Suraikin advocates building a defense alliance in the style of 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-producing company based in the Moscow region, was nominated for Russia’s presidential candidacy 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 Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) 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) on December 29, 2017. |
