Liberal politician and former leader of the "Yabloko" party, Grigory Yavlinsky, has collected two million signatures needed to enter the presidential election on March 4.

      According to Sergei MItrokhin, current leader of the "Yabloko" party, the lists will be submitted to the Central Election Commission for verification on Wednesday.

      Yavlinsky had been in political semi-retirement for the past decade but resurfaced before parliamentary elections on December 4.

      During elections for the State Duma, the "Yabloko" party failed to pass 7-percent threshold to enter the Lower House of the Russian Parliament. Following other opposition leaders, Yavlinsky has been one of the leaders of a growing protest movement seeking a rerun of the elections.

      According to elections rules, Grigory Yavlinsky had to collect two million signatures, as he wasn't candidate for promotion from any parliamentary party.

      On January 13, tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov also claimed he has collected more that two million signutares in his support.

      A deadline for the signatures' submission is January 18. Russian Central Election Commission has already registered Vladimir Putin (Russia's premier minister, "Yedinaya Rossiya" party), Sergei Mironov (leader of the parliamentary "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" party), Vladimir Zhirinovsky (leader of the parliamentary Liberal-Democratic  party) and Gennady Zyuganov (leader of the parliamentary Communist party).

Sources: Lenta.ru RIA Novosti Image: runews