M. Stulov

Today, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on setting the date for parliamentary elections, the press service of the head of state reported. In accordance with the decree of August 29, the elections of State Duma deputies will be held on December 4. The act of signing took place at a meeting on Monday with the leaders of the country's registered political parties in Sochi.

"The decree is as follows: to schedule elections for deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the new convocation for December 4, 2011. It comes into force from the moment of its official publication," Medvedev said, signing the decree.

The President promised that all polling stations will be equipped with electronic voting systems by 2015, and by December 4, about 5,000 stations will receive the new equipment. "In order to ultimately exclude even a hypothetical situation with rigging of voting results, we will continue to provide technical support to all election commissions. This will be completed by 2015," Medvedev said.

At the beginning of August, Medvedev, at a meeting with the leadership of United Russia, announced that at the end of the month he intended to discuss with the leaders of parliamentary factions the preparations for the State Duma elections scheduled for December. At the same time, he stated that "by that time it will already be necessary to prepare the corresponding decree (on the appointment of elections)."

The leaders of the parties were well aware that the president would sign the decree on the date of the elections today: the congresses of three of them, United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and A Just Russia, will be held on the same date - September 23-24. "On August 29, a meeting will be held in Sochi between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the leaders of all seven (registered) political parties. It is assumed that during this meeting a decree on the date of the parliamentary elections will be signed," said Ivan Melnikov, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, last week.

Medvedev sets date for State Duma elections