MOSCOW: Russia’s presidential election will take place on March 18, the upper house of parliament said Friday, in polls that are all but certain to return Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin for a new six-year term. The election campaign will kick off on Monday, agencies quoted senators as saying. Independent candidates are officially required to collect 300,000 signatures of support before they are allowed on the ballot paper. At his end-of-year press conference on Thursday, Putin said he was for political competition but did not see any realistic opponents in the forthcoming election. March 18 will mark four years since Putin signed a treaty that declared Crimea a part of Russia after it was annexed from Ukraine.

Source: New Strait Times December 15, 2017 08:48 UTC