Yesterday, at exactly 6:00 p.m. the Central Election Commission stopped accepting of two million signatures required to enter the presidential race. Three more candidates join the election campaign.

      Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, veteran liberal Grigory Yavlinsky and Irkutsk Governor Dmitry Mezentsev submitted the required minimum two million signatures to the Central Election Commission before the deadline for independent candidates.

      Mikhail Prokhorov said his command has collected signatures of a high quality, so he doesn't expect any grounds for being rejected from registration. On Tuesday, the candidate said he might appoint former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin or jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky as prime minister if elected president. 

      Another candidate, the leader of the unregistered Volya party, Svetlana Peunova, wasn't able to collect two million signatures. She said it was impossible to collect this number of signatures without fraud. 

      The Central Election Commission will be checking all the signatures for about a week. Final list of candidates for the race will be announced on January 29. The presidential election in Russia will take place on March 4.

      There are already four candidates for presidency registered: Vladimir Putin, Gennady Zyuganov, Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Sergey Mironov. As candidates from parliamentary parties, they weren't required to collect signatures. 

Sources: Lenta.ru RIA Novosti Image: rt.korr