Sergei Mironov, the leader of the A Just Russia party, submitted on Tuesday documents to register as a candidate in the March 2012 presidential polls.
“I’m sure there will be a second round of voting,” Mironov said.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will seek to return to the Kremlin in next year's elections, after being barred by the constitution from standing for a third term in 2008. While most analysts still expect he will triumph at the polls, recent widespread unrest over alleged election fraud in favor of his United Russia party has led to speculation he may not gain the 50 percent, necessary for outright victory in the first round of voting.
Mironov, who in May lost his job as speaker of the upper house of parliament, said that his election agenda included measures to tackle corruption in Russia, as well as bring back direct elections for regional governors, which were scrapped by Putin in 2004.
But some analysts see Mironov's candidacy as a ploy by the Kremlin to cast him as an opposition figure who might subsequently head a "controlled opposition" that would lend greater legitimacy to the presidential elections.
Apart from Mironov, at least three other candidates are expected to challenge Putin for the presidency. Among them are Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the nationalist LDPR party, veteran Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov and Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who announced his presidential plans on Monday.
Prokhorov, once the leader of the Right Cause party, does not represent any political faction and will have to collect two million signatures to be officially registered as candidate.
Russia’s presidential polls are scheduled for March, 4, 2012.
