Nikolay Kharitonov

Nikolay Mikhailovich Kharitonov (Николай Михайлович Харитонов; born 30 October 1948) is a Russian communist politician, who serves in the State Duma since 1994, and as Chairman of the Committee on the Development of Far Eastern and Arctic regions since 2011.

He ran on the slogan “For the native land and the popular will". and spoke frequently of the virtues of Leninism. Kharitonov proposed re-erecting the statue of Soviet secret police founder Felix Dzerzhinsky, which formerly stood in front of the Lubyanka Building until it was pulled down in 1991.

Kharitonov was strongly supported by party leader Gennady Zyuganov.

Many of Kharitonov's advertisements featured Zyuganov speaking on behalf of his candidacy.

Although Zyuganov had originally wanted for the party to abstain from participating in the elections to protest what he considered to be the "undemocratic nature" of the election, he could not coalesce the party in agreement on non-participation and ultimately supported Kharitonov.

Putin's camp believed that Kharitonov's candidacy benefited their cause by helping to increase turnout and weakening Sergey Glazyev's vote share.

The Communist Party had been besieged by fierce opposition ads during the preceding legislative election in 2003.

However, Kharitonov escaped similar opposition ads, as Putin's campaign sought not to give him a platform.

During the campaign, Kharitonov threatened to drop out of the race if he did not receive live coverage for his speeches just as Putin had.

Previously a member of the Agrarian Party until quitting in protest of their cooperation with the ruling United Russia, he is best known for his unsuccessful bid to unseat incumbent President Vladimir Putin in the 2004 election, coming in second place.

He is now running for a second time in the 2024 election in what will effectively be a rematch.

Kharitonov was the Communist Party's nominee in the 2004 Russian presidential election.

At the time, some observers perceived him to be a weak candidate, lacking in both name recognition and charisma.

Russians were largely indifferent or unaware of his candidacy.

Following his complaints, the RTR television network agreed to broadcast live coverage of a speech Kharitonov gave to his supporters in Tula on 4 March 2004.

Kharitonov eventually lost the election, coming in second place with 13% of the vote.

Kharitonov announced that he would challenge Putin to a rematch in the 2024 Russian presidential election.

Despite opposing many of Putin's domestic policies, he does not oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and as such has been placed on the sanctions list of the United Kingdom and the United States.