On 27 December 2017, Putin submitted documents for participation in the elections to the
Central Election Commission. On 28 December, the CEC registered the initiative group and allowed him to start collecting signatures.
Collection of signatures On 5 January 2018, signatures started being collected in support of Putin. It was necessary to collect from 300,000 to 315,000 signatures to be admitted to the elections. In each subject of the Russian Federation it was necessary to collect no more than 7,500 signatures. By 12 January Putin had gathered the required number of signatures, and even exceeded this number by almost 100,000. Putin's staff decided to continue collecting signatures. In total the campaign gathered more than 1.5 million signatures, of which around 315,000 were submitted to the CEC on 29 January. By 2 February they had been verified - only 232 signatures were deemed invalid.
Visits and campaign On 7 February Putin visited
Krasnoyarsk. Although it was officially a work trip many believe it was linked to his campaign. His visit was linked to the preparation to the Universaide, which will be held in the winter of 2019. Before addressing the issue he visited the multi-functional sports center Sopka. During the meeting concerning the issue Putin noted that Russia "without a doubt remains a leader in international sport" - this was the year before Russia was banned from international sport (see
Doping in Russia). Next he went to a council concerning ecological problems. Near the end of his visit he entered the sport watching complex Platinum Arena Krasnoyarsk, where he took photos with training hockey players and met with the three players of the youth team Totem. To conclude his visit he inspected the new terminal of the
aeroport Yemelyanovo. On 8 February President Putin visited
Novosibirsk. The main topic for the visit was the scientific potential of the state. He met with members of SO RAN and congratulated them with the day of science. He visited the nuclear science institute Budker. He met with
Andrey Travnikov, who is Acting Governor of Novosibirsk Oblast. He was present at the meeting of the council for education and science, where he revealed a few details of the speech he would give to the
Federal Assembly. During his campaign he refused to take part in any presidential debates personally like he did in previous ones in 2000, 2004 and 2012, citing his spokesman, being "too busy". Though he was presented by his representative and his most presidential campaign is done by his trusted figures. . On 3 March, in
Moscow at the
Luzhniki stadium held a rally in support of Vladimir Putin. In total, more than 130,000 people came to the rally. The rally was made by confidants of Putin, among whom were star athletes, figures of culture and science. Speaking at the meeting, Vladimir Putin said: "We want to make our country bright, looking forward to the future, because our ancestors lived here, we live, our children live and our children and grandchildren will live. We will do everything to make them happy. For us and apart from us no one else will. But if we do this, the next 10 years, the entire XXI century will be marked by our bright victories. We'll do it!". On 14 March, Vladimir Putin spoke at a rally in
Sevastopol to mark the anniversary of the
Crimean status referendum. On 18 March, Vladimir Putin voted in the presidential election. He voted at a traditional polling station located in the building of the
Russian Academy of Sciences.
Hiding the pension reform plan Shortly after Putin’s re-election, the appointed
Russian government released the plan of the pension reform involving a substantial increase of the national
retirement age; in October 2018 Putin signed the corresponding bill into law. However, during the presidential campaign, nothing was said by Putin on this subject — so that Russian citizens would not expect any changes in this socially-sensitive area. Moreover, for many years Putin promised not to hike the retirement age, and in several articles published by Russian media before the election, the existence of any intentions to change the pension age until 2030 were denied. In the aftermath, more than 60% of Russians interpreted his silence as a trick aimed at securing victory in the election, which would have been questionable if he had presented his plan in advance. All this has severely affected Putin’s reputation,
Forbes estimated the whole story as cynical and heavily compromising the leader of the nation. ==Endorsements==