Location: Russia

President Putin's re-election

In Russia, the eight final candidates who will compete in the 18 March elections have been known for a few weeks now. There is something for everyone: from communist to liberal, from nationalist to ultra-nationalist, from ideological candidates to those with no ideology at all. However, it will not matter much, as the outcome is a foregone conclusion: a fourth term for President Vladimir Putin. And yet it takes quite a lot of effort to register as a candidate at all: you have to collect hundreds of thousands of signatures and comply with all sorts of strict rules, and if you are in opposition, you generally have little or no financial resources to do so. So who are these people who nevertheless try so eagerly and hard to stay in the race, and why do they do it?