Communist Party of the Russian Federation selects presidential candidate

On December 23, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation selected its candidate to represent it in the Russian presidential election next March, Mr. Pavel Grudinin, Director of the enterprise "Lenin Collective Farm" on the outskirts of Moscow.

Candidate Pavel Grudinin. Source: rferl.org

The decision to select Mr. Grudinin, 57 years old, to run for president was made after the annual plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

This was a surprising decision, because in the previous five presidential elections, the candidate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation was always Party Chairman Gennady Zyuganov.

Previously, Mr. Zyuganov, 73 years old, was nominated by the Party Executive Committee to the position of leader of the Supreme Council of Patriotic People's Forces - the Party's election steering body.

The council will be established before the presidential election and will consist of 35-40 members.

On the same day, the ruling United Russia party pledged its full support for incumbent President Vladimir Putin in next year's election.

Speaking at the party's annual congress, President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stressed that United Russia wants "overwhelming victory" and will "support Putin with all its might".

Also at the congress, President Putin pledged to provide more support to businesses, step up the fight against corruption and continue investing in health care and education.

According to plan, the Russian presidential election will take place on March 18, 2018.

In last year's parliamentary election, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation came in second, after the United Russia party./.

According to Vietnamplus