2012 Russian presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Russia on 4 March 2012. There were five officially registered candidates: four representatives of registered parties, and one nominal independent. The election was the first one held after constitutional amendments were introduced in 2008, in which the elected president for the first time would serve a six-year term, rather than a four-year term.

At the congress of the ruling United Russia party in Moscow on 24 September 2011, the incumbent president Dmitry Medvedev proposed that his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, stand for the presidency in 2012, an offer which Putin accepted. Putin immediately offered Medvedev the opportunity to stand on the United Russia ticket in the parliamentary elections in December 2011 and become prime minister at the end of his presidential term. All independents had to register by 15 December 2011, and candidates nominated by parties were required to register by 18 January 2012. The final list was announced on 29 January. On 2 March, outgoing president Medvedev addressed the nation on the national television channels about the upcoming elections, inviting citizens to vote.

Putin received 63.6% of the vote, securing a third overall term. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe observers assessed the voting on the election day positively overall, but assessed the vote count negatively in almost one-third of polling stations due to procedural irregularities.

Candidates

The following individuals submitted documents to the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) in order to be officially registered as presidential candidates.

Registered candidates

The following candidates were successfully registered by the CEC, candidates are listed in the order they appear on the ballot paper (alphabetical order in Russian):

Campaigning

Sergey Mironov

A Just Russia nominee called for a return to a socialist model of government.

Mikhail Prokhorov

Mikhail Prokhorov conducted a tour around the country, meeting with his supporters in various cities. He was the only candidate to do so except for Putin, who visited Russia's regions as a part of his Prime Minister of Russia duties.

If elected, Prokhorov promised to reinstate elections for Russia's governorships. He also promised to pardon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. He promised to reverse the recent constitutional amendment that had lengthened presidential terms from four years to six. He stated that he would select Alexei Kudrin to serve as his prime minister. Prokhorov promised to dismantle state control of the media and prohibit all forms of censorship and state control of major television and radio stations. He promised to dismantle large energy monopolies, including dismantling Gazprom. He also stated that he favored better relations with the European Union.

Vladimir Putin

In the course of the 2012 presidential campaign, in order to present his manifesto, Putin published 7 articles in different Russian newspapers. In those articles, he presented his vision of the problems which Russia successfully solved in the last decade and the goals yet to be achieved. The topics of the articles were as follows: the general overview, the ethnicity issue, economic tasks, democracy and government efficiency, social policy, military and foreign policy.

Speeches

During the campaign Putin made a single outdoor public speech at a 100,000-strong rally of his supporters in the Luzhniki Stadium on 23 February, Russia's Defender of the Fatherland Day.Putin Supporters Fill Moscow Stadium
RIAN In the speech, he called on the Russian people not to betray the Motherland, but to love her and to unite for the common good.Путин: Главное, чтобы мы были вместе
vz.ru He said that foreign interference in Russian affairs should not be allowed, and Russia's national sovereignty should be paramount. He compared the political situation (when there was widespread fear that the 2011–13 Russian protests could instigate a color revolution directed from abroad) with the First Fatherland War (more generally known as Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Russia), reminding listeners that the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino would be celebrated in 2012. Putin cited Lermontov's poem ''Borodino'' and ended the speech with Vyacheslav Molotov's famous Great Patriotic War slogan "The Victory Shall Be Ours!" (''"Победа будет за нами!"'').

The BBC reported that some attendees claimed they had been ordered by their employers to take part in the rally, or paid to do so. Some said they had been told they were attending a "folk festival". After Putin spoke, popular folk band Lubeh took to the stage.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky

Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky is a veteran of Russian politics who has participated in five presidential elections in Russia (every election since 1996). Zhirinovsky's campaign slogan for 2012 was "Vote Zhirinovsky, or things will get worse".Profiles of Russia's 2012 presidential election candidates
BBC
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