Talk:2018 Russian presidential election

Putin in 2018?
Have many sources said that he could possibly run again for President in 2018? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kahtar22 (talk • contribs) 01:07, 26 September 2016 (UTC)
 * As of May 2017 so far he has been silent regarding the election. Nikolai Romanov (talk) 16:57, 3 May 2017 (UTC)
 * He still hasn't said anything about this as of June 2017 (yesterday a question was asked at his annual Direct Line). So far he has kept silent about it or said that it is too early to say. Rest assured the minute he makes an official announcement on deciding to run it will be added here. YantarCoast

Navalny presidential bid
Information about Navalny's presidential bid should be updated according to the latest news: https://apnews.com/147dd51bc6c04107901952fe89dd13f2 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.218.182.23 (talk) 13:33, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

Should we make a separate article for his campaign, along the style of Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016 and Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016? Navalny has a campaign website (https://2018.navalny.com/) and is trying to style his along American lines. Romanov loyalist (talk) 01:01, 11 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Russian article is already running. --Max Shakhray (talk) 21:21, 28 April 2017 (UTC)

Andrey Bazhutin
New candidate... --Мечников (talk) 19:41, 15 June 2017 (UTC)
 * http://echo.msk.ru/blog/otstavnih/1999620-echo/
 * http://mskgazeta.ru/obshchestvo/borec-protiv-sistemy-platon-andrej-bazhutin-reshil-idti-v-prezidenty-.html
 * http://www.mk.ru/politics/2017/06/14/u-navalnogo-poyavilsya-konkurent-dalnoboyshhiki-vydvinuli-kandidata-v-prezidenty-rossii.html

Putin not listed in the United Russia Potential Candidates Section
Why isn't Putin in the potential candidates section for United Russia? He's been included in polls and he hasn't ruled out running as far as I know. --HighFlyingFish (talk) 19:15, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

Hello. This was my edit - Putin is now listed as a potential independent candidate a) because he hasn't been part of United Russia since 2012 (see https://themoscowtimes.com/news/putin-quits-united-russia-and-urges-medvedev-to-take-control-14341), and b) because the Russian media has reported that he is most likely considering running as an independent in order to appear as the president "for all Russians" rather than those who support United Russia (see: https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/putin-likely-to-run-as-independent-in-2018-presidential-election-58309). --YantarCoast (talk) 13:08, 8 July 2017 (UTC)

Makes sense! --HighFlyingFish (talk) 19:48, 8 July 2017 (UTC)

Protection needed
An IP is continuously pushing unsupported information into this article. For example, adding candidates to the infobox who have not even started collecting the signatures required to run, let alone been approved and registered by the CEC. I have pointed this out several times, but the user continues to go back to his or her unsourced and incorrect versions, stating "Put things like they were". The same IP address has been involved in similar vandalism on other pages. --YantarCoast (talk) 21:25, 21 August 2017 (UTC)

Zhirinovsky
He seems not to be officially registered by the CEC yet. Along with several other candidates, he was allowed to open an official bank account for his campaign. Max Shakhray (talk) 19:51, 25 December 2017 (UTC)

Alexei Navalny's campaign in the Campaigning section

 * The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Alexei Navalny's campaign section should be deleted his not a candidate anymore/ 2 his campaign section is to much more then other candidates.Max.Moore (talk) 02:11, 28 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Oppose. His campaign was made very brightly and going on, transferring to boycott company with protests now. 92.113.205.84 (talk) 11:50, 28 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Support. He isn't a candidate and won't even be registered as one. In previous Russian presidential articles we haven't included campaigns of people who were rejected by the CEC. Can't see any reason to do it now. There's a separate page for his campaign. That's enough.YantarCoast (talk) 12:17, 28 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Regardless of the final decision of CEC, it is notable that his campaign has gone on the longest and has caused the most publicity and scandals around the election and the government. At the very least, a section on Navalny and a brief overview of his activities should be added to the article. Romanov loyalist (talk) 22:16, 28 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Oppose. He was a candidate, and probably the most notable one. Tradedia talk 05:07, 30 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Oppose. His candidacy was a major element in the election, notwithstanding the fact that he was excluded nor that his chances of winning were remote. Activist (talk) 15:16, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Oppose As above. I don't take any particular interest in contemporary Russian politics, and even I was aware of his candidacy. That he was disqualified doesn't change the fact that he was a candidate, and so I see no purpose served by removing him. Vanamonde (talk) 04:51, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Oppose. His campaign must be included because he is the only candidate independent on the Kremlin administration. It was also widely covered in sources. My very best wishes (talk) 17:55, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Summoned by bot. Navalny's candidacy was notable, per many sources; any fair recounting of the election would include telling the story of his candidacy, reception, and outcome. @YantarCoast, I understand that this will make this election page different from past pages, but that seems understandable. A brief review of the disqualified 2012 candidates doesn't seem to indicate that any were as significant. Also, in that year, none seemed to be part of the public debate after disqualification, which may not be the case here. Chris vLS (talk) 08:30, 22 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Oppose (Via RFC) As per User:My very best wishes, primarily - I have not even slightly been paying attention to Russian politics, and I am aware of Navalny's campaign. This is definitely notable. -- Cheers, Alfie. (Say Hi!) 17:13, 23 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Oppose – Navalny was a widely-covered candidate, even though legal reasons prevent him from officially running. — JFG talk 02:05, 24 January 2018 (UTC)


 * The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Independant candidate
Shall we really pretend Putin is an independent candidate and assign him the grey color? He's the previous president of United Russia, got elected as its candidate and is leading the All Russia alliance. I don't think we're bound to assign him an independent color because of his official candidature, but rather should try to be informative of the real political forces at play here.--Aréat (talk) 19:43, 11 February 2018 (UTC)
 * Don't worry - everyone understands the realities - only an idiot would get his political "truth" from Wikipedia. Just follow the guidelines and don't stress. :-) 50.111.3.17 (talk) 01:13, 18 March 2018 (UTC)


 * This is not a forum. Please propose specific changes to the article and provide independent reliable sources that support your proposal. Thank you. Retimuko (talk) 20:55, 12 February 2018 (UTC)
 * No. It is basic Wiki étiquette to talk about important changes into the talk page first before unilateraly implementing them. Vladimir Putin is listed as the candidate of the All-Russia People's Front in the very own page infobox. A party of which he is listed as the leader, thus not an independent. The article shouldn't portray him by an administrative, misleading, condition. If Putin is the main figure of United Russia, of which he was the president for decades, was elected multiple time under its banner, recently made saveral speech before its members, received their open full support, and benefit from the huge assets of its campaigning powers, then he isn't an independent candidate. That's simply misleading.--Aréat (talk) 03:54, 18 February 2018 (UTC)
 * He should be listed as whatever party he represents on the ballot paper. If he's formally running as an independent, that's how he should be represented. However, there's nothing to stop it being noted that he is supported by whatever party. Number   5  7  17:37, 18 February 2018 (UTC)

Golos
Golos is reporting over 2,500 reports of violations. Yet, Golos is not mentioned once in this article. It needs to be added somewhere, but I'm not sure where. – Muboshgu (talk) 22:07, 18 March 2018 (UTC)

"Reactions" section...
It would be be good to see more balance in the "reactions" section. As of right now, it's entirely criticisms. But there were actually a fair number of world leaders who congratulated Putin on his victory, including:

Azerbaijan: http://tass.com/world/994922

Belarus: http://tass.com/world/994926

China: http://www.firstpost.com/world/xi-jinping-congratulates-vladimir-putin-on-his-re-election-says-china-russia-partnership-is-at-best-level-in-history-4395615.html

Cuba: http://tass.com/world/994906

Kazakhstan: http://tass.com/world/994907

Serbia: http://tass.com/world/994864

Venezuela: http://tass.com/world/994911

Also, the article states: "The opposition said the results were rigged, reporting ballot stuffing and other cases of alleged fraud..."

But who exactly is this "opposition" that this is referring to?

Is this the Communist Party of Pavel Grudinin, who came in second place with about 12% of the vote?

Is it the fascist "Liberal Democrat" party of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who came in third place with about five and a half percent of the vote?

Or is this referring specifically to the PRO-WESTERN-opposition - i.e. candidates like Ksenia Sobchak, the most successful of the pro-western candidates, who came in fourth place with 1.67% of the vote?

And, assuming it's the latter, are Sobchak and her supporters alleging that she's actually the legitimate winner of the election, but that there was fraud on such a massive scale as to make her percentage appear in the low single digits? Or are they simply saying that her actual vote percentage was really a bit higher - perhaps three or four percent?...

All of this needs to be better fleshed out - who specifically is making these allegations, and what specifically they're alleging. -2003:CA:83CC:6400:317B:8A14:F3D1:6E4F (talk) 09:41, 19 March 2018 (UTC)
 * You can add these reactions as much as anyone, you know. ;) --Aréat (talk) 10:44, 19 March 2018 (UTC)
 * The opposition was banned from even running in this election, so you wont find them in the polls. But sure, feel free to add comments about supporting reactions from other non-free countries. Carewolf (talk) 14:16, 19 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Re: "The opposition was banned from even running in this election..." - CITATION NEEDED! Your assertion is plainly contradicted by the facts.  There were opposition candidates of multiple stripes, including Communist, fascist, and pro-Western liberal. -2A02:810B:700:3F22:7DF3:DDA7:BE36:BE2B (talk) 07:12, 20 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Carewolf is referring to Navalny. Navalny emerged as a notable opposition candidate to Putin but he was later indicted and convicted of charges which made him ineligible to run. Additionally, when referring to how the opposition has asserted that it is rigged, this also applies to Sobchak because even during the campaign she stated that the election was rigged. BrendonTheWizard (talk) 17:33, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

Reactions → Reactions and Violations.
I think this section should be splitted into two separate ones: What do you think folks? davronov a.a.  15:53, 22 March 2018 (UTC)


 * This would be a positive change, though I have some concerns about the term "Violations" here
 * Terms such as criticisms, electoral irregularities, allegations of electoral fraud, concerns, or suspicions would all be more fitting as they did not necessarily violate anything in particular.
 * "Alleged" or "Allegations" should be included; though you and I can be absolutely certain that this election was systematically rigged and handed over to Putin, we cannot yet use Wikipedia's voice to say that it is confirmed that Putin's government rigged it (even though it's obvious, it has not been concluded).
 * Personally, I am in favor of "Electoral Irregularities" as this is the title used in the 2012 election (which as you can see from its map was also very obviously skewed in favor of Putin). International reactions and electoral irregularities should both have their own sections, and I would also support the creation of a subsection on subsequent protests taking place in Russia. BrendonTheWizard (talk) 17:19, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

Protection
Looks like some protection might be needed. Mellk (talk) 15:53, 20 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Semi-protected until the 28th; if any severe edit warring or vandalism takes place, a request can be made that the article's protection level is temporarily upgraded. BrendonTheWizard (talk) 17:22, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

Lede
The lede seems overlong... should some of that be moved to the body? Night Ranger (talk) 01:05, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

Candidates Section
This is from the large table. Is it English? I can read the words, but I do not know what the sense of them is.

''Despite the fact that Communist Party leader and perennial candidate Gennady Zyuganov said his nomination was supported by all leftist forces and he would participate in the elections on behalf of the party, the Zhigulyovsk branch of the party voted to supported the candidacy of Pavel Grudinin, who also won the primaries of Left Front, a coalition of left-wing parties with no representation in the State Duma. Grudinin did not deny his nomination from the Communist Party.[36] On 21 December 2017 it was reported that Zyuganov proposed to nominate Grudinin.[37] Initially the Communist Party and the National Patriotic Forces of Russia (NPFR) planned to nominate a single candidate: Grudinin (supported by the Communists) or Yury Boldyrev (supported by the NPFR). Boldyrev also participated in the primaries of Left Front in which he lost in the second round to Grudinin.[38] According to the Deputy Alexander Yushchenko, Zyuganov was still among the candidates for the nomination. He named the other candidates as Yury Afonin, Sergey Levchenko and Leonid Kalashnikov. On 22 December Zyuganov, Levchenko and Kalashnikov withdrew their bids, and Zyuganov rejected the candidacies of Afonin and Boldyrev, leaving Grudinin as the sole candidate.[39] Grudinin was officially nominated at the party congress on 23 December.[40] Zyuganov is the head of Grudinin's presidential campaign.[41] Grudinin filed registration documents with the CEC on 28 December[42] and 9 January 2018.[43] '' Jd2718 (talk) 04:43, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

Proof of election fraud
There is very little talk about open election fraud that took place in Russia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94hxUsuqJxs You can easily find more proof (if you wish). So, why are you not adding this, and locking the page instead? Tegra 85.64.40.239 (talk) 13:16, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

I agree. There should be inclusion of material about this. 173.66.159.125 (talk) 06:33, 10 April 2018 (UTC)