Nikolai Kharitonov and Vladislav Davankov are fighting in this election against Putin.
The current President Vladimir Putin has been in power in Russia for 25 years. Putin’s victory in this election is certain. Everyone thinks that he is going to come to power for the fifth time. According to the report of the German press Deutsche Welle, Putin will sit in the presidential seat for the fifth time this year. That is, he will be in power until 2030. Those who stand against Putin are not criticizing Putin that much. As a result, many people say that this election is actually a sham.
Navalny, the anti-Putin leader, died in Russian prison a few days ago. He was allegedly killed. Before this, they tried to kill him with poison. He was treated in Germany. Another critic of Putin is Boris Nadezhdin. But the Russian court did not allow him to stand in the polls. Boris appealed to the Supreme Court; But the Supreme Court also did not allow him to stand for election. According to experts, Boris could have put Putin in a fight if he stood up.
The 75-year-old Communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov stood in the polls as an opponent of Putin. He is ranked second in terms of popularity in the survey of presidential candidates in this election. However, it is estimated that his vote gap with Putin will be large. Although he opposes Putin on some local issues, he stands by Putin on the Ukraine war.
On the other hand, 40-year-old Vladislav Davankov stands against Putin. He has also informed that he has no particular differences with the President. He only talked about personal freedom during the election campaign. Davankov is the deputy chairman of the State Duma, the legislative body of Russia.
According to the survey, Nikolay and Vladislav could jointly get 4 to 5 percent of the votes. Putin will get all the remaining votes. Many people in the political circles have raised the question, was there any need for this popular election?
However, according to experts, Putin wants to prove two things from this vote inside and outside the country. Inside the country, he wants to show that most of the people of Russia are with him. That is, the people of the country are united with the president.
Outside the country, Putin is trying to convey through this vote that all the decisions taken by him are supported by the people of the country. That is, there is no internal opposition to the Ukraine campaign. Getting the message out to the outside world was crucial, Putin experts said.