Embassy's Statement
January 9, 2018
On January 7, 2018 another round of preparation work for the regular elections of the President of the Russian Federation concluded – the documents from the self-nominated presidential candidates were submitted.
Since the beginning of the campaign the fifteen candidates who have decided to run for the Russian Presidency as self-nominated have submitted the required documentation to the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation.
All the accepted documents are being thoroughly checked for compliance with the Russian law. Seven electoral groups formed to provide support to the self-nominated candidates have been denied registration due to various noncompliances.
Since the beginning of the presidential campaign the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation has received notifications about holding events related to candidate nominations from political parties as well. This stage is set to end on January 12, 2018. For more information on the electoral system refer to the web-site of the Central Election Commission.
Meanwhile accusations from officials in Washington that the decisions to deny registration to the Russian presidential candidates were politically motivated are absolutely groundless and politicized. Suspicions of the upcoming elections being undemocratic are invalid. It should be noted that all of that coincided with another wave of untrue allegations about Russia’s interference into electoral processes in other countries.
In this regard we wish to calm the ‘hot heads’ in America: demands to allow someone’s participation in the Russian elections and other similar hypocritical attempts to put pressure on the Russian authorities are unacceptable and are deemed as direct interference in our country’s internal affairs.
We hope that the U.S. authorities shall not create obstacles in the way of Russian citizens, residing and temporarily staying in the USA, when they exercise their voting rights. The information about the location of the voting stations set up by the Russian diplomatic and consular missions will be provided to the U.S. authorities in the proper manner.
For the purpose of conducting the voting process voting stations will be set up in the facilities of the Russian foreign missions – at the Embassy in Washington, D.C., Consulates General in Houston, New York, and Seattle. Early polling is also planned to take place in Albany, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Orlando, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.