MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. Vladimir Putin is holding his first event as a presidential candidate in the upcoming presidential election. He arrived at his campaign headquarters in Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor.

Putin will talk to volunteers and co-chairs of the headquarters. "The event has begun," the headquarters told TASS.

Putin is running as a self-nominated candidate. To register as a candidate, he must collect 300,000 signatures, but no more than 7,500 in each region. At the same time, more than 2.5 million signatures in support of Putin have already been collected across the country. The deadline for submitting signatures to Russia’s Central Election Commission is January 31.

Putin's presidential campaign headquarters began its work on December 21. Now the regions continue to deliver the collected documents there. The headquarters is staffed by volunteers, representatives of the People’s Front and the ruling United Russia party.

The Russian presidential election will be held in March, the voting will last three days: from March 15 to March 17.