The presidential election-2018 is in progress in Russia.
On March 18, about 96,000 polling stations have opened nationwide at 08:00 local time. The voting will last until 20:00.
Eight candidates are running for the highest office in the Russian Federation. Among them are: incumbent president Vladimir Putin; Pavel Grudinin (nominated by the Communist Party of Russia); Ksenia Sobchak (nominated by Civil Initiative); Sergey Baburin, head of the Russian People’s Union party; Maxim Suraikin, chairman of the Central Committee of the Communists of Russia party; Boris Titov, chairman of the Party of Growth and Russian Presidential Envoy for Entrepreneurs’ Rights; Grigory Yavlinsky, head of the Yabloko Party’s federal political committee; Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR).
Nearly 400 polling stations have been established abroad so that Russian citizens could cast their vote when being in other countries.
Voting at the presidential elections in Russia is available in 13 cities of Belarus, BelTA reports. Polling stations have been set up in Minsk and all the Belarusian regional centres: Brest, Hrodna, Vitsebsk, Homiel and Mahiliou.
The first voting results as well as exit poll data will be announced at 21.00 (Moscow time), after the polling stations are closed in the west of Russia – in Kaliningrad region. The Russian Central Election Commission is expected to publish the preliminary results of nationwide voting on Monday morning.
