At stake in this election:

• The office of President of Russia

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN
• Head of Government: Premier Mikhail Yefimovich FRADKOV
• Assembly: Russia has a bicameral Federal Assembly (Federalnoye Sobraniye) consisting of the Federation Council (Sovet Federatsii) with 178 seats and the State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma) with 450 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 4-year term.
• The Premier is appointed by the President.
• In the Federation Council (Sovet Federatsii) 178 members are appointed to serve 4-year terms*. In the State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma), 250 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms and 250 members are elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms.**

* Members appointed by the top executive and legislative officials in each of the 89 federal administrative units.

** There is a 5% threshold in the proportional tier.

Main Candidates in the Presidential race:

• Vladimir PUTIN
  • Party: Independent
• Nikolai KHARITONOV
  • Party: The Communist Party of the Russian Federation / (KPRF)
• Sergei GLAZYEV***
  • Party: Independent
• Irina Mutsuovna KHAKAMADA****
  • Party: Independent
• Oleg MALYSHKIN
  • Party: Liberal Democratic Party / (LDPR)
• Sergei MIRONOV
  • Party: Party of Russia's Rebirth-Party of Life
• Against All Candidates
  • Party: N/A

*** GLAZYEV was nominated by a nonpartisan voter group because the Rodina (Motherland) bloc, which GLAZYEV helped found, is considered a movement rather than a party. On February 16, however, Rodina voted to drop GLAZYEV's membership due to mutual disagreements about the party's policies.
**** On January 14, 2004, KHAKAMADA announced that she will run as an independent candidate if the Union of Right Forces (SPS) cannot secure the required two million signatures needed to confirm her participation in the presidential polls.

Last Presidential election:

• The last presidential election was held on March 26, 2000. In this election Vladimir Putin secured 52.9% of the national votes while Gennadiy Anreyevich ZYUGANOV of the Communist Party (KPRF) won 29.2% of the votes and Grigoriy Alekseyevich YAVLINSKY of the YABLOKO party secured 5.8% of the votes.

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 144,067,054 (2004)
• Registered Voters: 108,064,281 (2004)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 76,949,489 (2004)

·         Is Russia a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (17 July 1980)

·         Has Russia ratified CEDAW: Yes (23 January 1981)

·         Gender Quota: No

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 45 (State Duma) following the 2003 elections

·         Human Development Index Position: 50 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: N/A

Disability Data:

·         Is Russia a signatory to CRPD: Yes (24 September 2008)

·         Has Russia ratified CRPD: Yes (25 September 2012)

·         Population with a disability: 21,610,058 (est.)