On March 15, the pre-term elections for Russian president began.

This was disclosed by the RIA News Agency. Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) Alexander Veshnyakov believes that no more than 250 thousand voters (that is less than 0.5 percent of all registered voters) could take part in the pre-term elections. According to the head of the CEC, the new law on "The Russian Presidential Elections" makes the process of a pre-term voting "much tougher." According to Alexander Veshnyakov, electoral commissions of all ranks are "almost ready" to carry on the presidential elections. It is worth reminding that as a result of a decision made by the Cassation Commission of the Supreme Court which forced the CEC to register Vladimir Zhirinovsky as a presidential candidate, electoral commissions over Russia had to quickly produce 111 million new voting papers. Simultaneously, all the previous circulation had to be destroyed.