Not all the collected signatures will be transferred to the Central Election Commission – only the required 315,000, the co-chairman of Putin’s election headquarters clarified to Vedomosti / Andrei Gordeyev / Vedomosti

The campaign headquarters of presidential candidate Vladimir Putin has announced the end of collecting signatures from voters in his support – five times more than necessary, more than 1.5 million, have already been collected, the co-chairman of the headquarters Sergei Kogogin told journalists on Friday: “We have achieved a result – we have received a response from the population: they supported Vladimir Vladimirovich by being active in collecting signatures.” According to him, 40% of the collected signatures are currently being verified. But not all the collected signatures will be transferred to the Central Election Commission – only the required 315,000, Kogogin clarified to Vedomosti. The number of signatures that have passed verification already exceeds 300,000, a person in the headquarters told Vedomosti. According to him, next week the entire package of signatures will be ready for transfer to the Central Election Commission, the exact date of their transfer will be determined by Putin.

The headquarters did not accept some of the signatures due to "excessive administrative zeal" shown during their collection, Kogogin noted. This concerns signatures from several Kurgan factories, where the collection may have been carried out during working hours. The Central Election Commission did not find confirmation of these reports, Kogogin noted, but the headquarters nevertheless decided not to accept signatures from these enterprises.

The second list of Putin's trusted persons is also ready, it has already been presented to the candidate and will soon be transferred to the Central Election Commission, said another co-chairman of the headquarters, Alexander Rumyantsev (the CEC registered the first 259 trusted persons of the president a week ago). After the registration of the new batch of trusted persons, their total number will exceed 400 people, follows from Rumyantsev's explanations: among them will be representatives of all 85 regions and all walks of life - from housewives to outstanding figures in science, education, medicine, etc. The list was formed in such a way that there would be at least two of them in each region, and one trusted person for every million residents in large cities, Rumyantsev explained. The trusted persons should head Putin's public headquarters in the regions, while the principle of co-chairmanship is adopted everywhere, as in the central headquarters, follows from the explanations of the third co-chairman of the headquarters, Elena Shmeleva. According to her, headquarters have been formed in 70 regions, and Moscow was expecting reports from another 15 regions about their formation this weekend.

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Signatures in support of Vladimir Putin's nomination in the 2018 presidential elections were delivered to his campaign headquarters in Moscow / Andrey Gordeyev / Vedomosti

The trusted persons are being prepared, in particular, to participate in pre-election debates in the regions, Rumyantsev said. According to him, the co-chairs of the central headquarters will also be ready to participate in debates at the federal level if there is an order from Putin. The trusted persons will receive guidelines for participating in debates and campaigning in the regions at a meeting with Putin, which may take place at the end of January, a source at the headquarters told Vedomosti. Part of Putin's election program may be presented at the meeting, he did not rule out. According to him, another important guideline will be the address to the Federal Assembly, which, according to Vedomosti's sources close to the presidential administration, may be announced at the beginning of February.

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Ballet dancer, rector of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet Nikolai Tsiskaridze / Valery Sharifulin / TASS

Headquarters stopped at 1.5 million