MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) intends to allocate about 14.9 billion rubles (about $246 million) in 2017 on electoral campaigns for the presidential elections scheduled for March 2018, CEC Deputy Chairman Nikolai Bulayev said on Wednesday.

"The 2017 budget consists of two basic figures. This is the sum of 14.9 billion rubles allocated to us to hold the presidential campaign. The second part involves the funds to finance the current activities of the CEC, its subordinate structures and the sum of about 5.5 billion rubles [$91 million], which we will give to the election commissions in Russian regions," Bulayev said.

"As for the 14.9 billion rubles, Russia’s CEC will gain access to this money after a decision is made on the date, the commencement and the announcement of the electoral campaign for the election of the Russian president. That is, we may not take this money either today or tomorrow or the day after tomorrow: after a decision is issued, we will get a possibility to use this money in compliance with the areas defined," he said.

Another 900 million rubles ($15 million) have been allocated to the CEC to hold by-elections to the State Duma (the lower house of Russia's parliament) in single-mandate constituencies, he said.

"The CEC’s attitude to this sum is the same as its attitude to the sum allocated for the presidential campaign and we will get access to this sum [for by-elections in single-mandate constituencies] when by-elections are announced for particular single-mandate constituencies," he said.