“There was a conversation”: Kharitonov responded to messages about his nomination from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation

Kharitonov commented on reports of presidential nomination from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation

Chairman of the Duma Committee for the Development of the Far East and Arctic Nikolai Kharitonov evasively answered the question of whether the Communist Party of the Russian Federation really chose him as its candidate in the March presidential elections in Russia.

According to the parliamentarian, “there was a conversation” regarding his participation in the presidential race, but “I cannot get ahead of events, it would be incorrect.”

In a commentary to RBC, Kharitonov said that “there were many candidates, different names were mentioned, and the conversation was transferred to the plenum.” As a result, the deputy neither confirmed nor denied reports of his participation in the presidential elections.

A TASS source reported that the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation supported the nomination of Nikolai Mikhailovich Kharitonov as a presidential candidate from the party. Now the decision must be made by the plenum, and then by the party congress.

Earlier, the Central Election Commission said that it had already received applications from 16 candidates to participate in the presidential elections. The current head of state, Vladimir Putin, will run as a self-nominated candidate.

The next presidential elections in Russia will take place in March 2024. For the first time in history, they will be multi-day – voting will be possible from March 15 to 17. Remote electronic voting is being organized in 29 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

Kremlin Speaker Dmitry Peskov assured that the impact of the increase in the incidence of influenza on the elections there can hardly be any talk. The president’s press secretary recalled that “the elections were held during Covid, and nothing happened.”