MOSCOW, January 13. /TASS/. The number of signatures in support of Vladimir Putin who stands for Russia’s president as a self-nominee has exceeded half a million, but his election team has made a decision to print additional papers for 200,000 more signatures, the team’s spokesman Andrei Kondrashov told TASS on Saturday.
"As of Saturday morning, 538,113 signatures in support of Putin has been collected. The procedure is still underway in 267 populated localities in all 85 Russian regions," he said.
"Despite the fact, we cannot submit more than 315,000 signatures, they are still being collected because we cannot but give the Russians an opportunity to express their attitude to Putin," he noted.
For this purpose, "the election team has taken a decision to print additional 20,000 signup lists, which will be enough for 200,000 more signatures," said Kondrashov.
"Additional signature lists will be printed at the expense of the candidate’s election fund," the spokesman added.
A self-nominee is obliged to present no less than 300,000 signatures, with each region accounting for no more than 7,500 signatures of local residents. If a signup campaign is held among citizens, permanently residing outside Russia, the overall number of such signatures can be no greater than 7,500.
Russia will elect president on March 18, 2018.