Russians cannot donate to Putin’s election campaign

Russians cannot donate to the election campaign of Vladimir Putin, who is running for the fifth term of the presidency: the money will be returned. This was found out by activists from Tyumen, Perm and Volgograd.

At first they tried to send Putin a donation from a “foreign agent” – the money was immediately returned. The same thing happened with donations from “non-agents” who have not been tried and are living according to the regulations.

According to the report on the movement of funds in Putin’s election fund, published by the CEC, he received 200,903 rubles from natural persons, and 200,000 was donated by one person. Putin returned the entire amount. For accepting money from “foreign agents”, one can be included in the closed register of persons affiliated with “foreign agents”, according to the law signed by Putin himself in 2022.

Putin’s election fund was filled by regional development funds: they transferred 472 million rubles to him. According to the law, only 400 million can be spent from the fund, so Putin also returned 72 million. Regional development funds are closely connected with “United Russia” and local authorities. Putin is running as a self-nominated candidate.

In addition to Putin, donations from individuals larger than 20,000 rubles (smaller amounts are not disclosed in the report) were received by Boris Nadezhdin, the candidate from the Citizen Initiative.

Also, candidates’ electoral funds can be replenished to a limited extent by their parties, legal entities, and the candidates themselves from their own funds. Voting in the presidential elections of Russia will take place from March 15 to 17, 2024.