The Supreme Court has backed a decision by the Central Election Committee to stop former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky running for Russian President in March.
His original application to stand was turned down because he lives in Britain and listed his address as Cambridge. Bukovsky later appealed the decision. According to election law, a citizen can run for president if he has lived in Russia for the past 10 years. The Election Committee has accepted the applications of two of the 11 independent candidates. They are former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and the leader of the Democratic Party of Russia, Andrey Bogdanov.