Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed legislation exempting political parties from the need to collect signatures to run in parliamentary elections and reducing the number of signatures needed for running in presidential elections.

“The number of signatures to run in presidential elections has been drastically reduced, which will make political life more exciting,” Medvedev said.

The minimum number of signatures for a presidential candidate fielded by a political party with no parliamentary representation has been reduced from 2 million to 100,000, the Kremlin press service said.

An independent candidate is to raise no less than 300,000 signatures with no more than 7,500 signatures to be collected in any one given Russian territory.

Medvedev also said if he becomes prime minister he would continue “communicating” with political parties in different formats.

“I will be ready for meetings at different levels and on different occasions,” he said.