First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has submitted the documents, needed to run in the upcoming presidential election, to the Central Election Commission.
Three candidates have handed in their paperwork so far – Dmitry Medvedev, Gennady Zyuganov, the leader of the Communist party, and Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Liberal Democrats. The independent candidates expected to run are yet to apply, they are the leader of the Democratic party Andrey Bogdanov, and the former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. They have to provide signatures of two million people ready to support them. The deadline for registration is January 16, at 6 pm.