Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin has not yet developed a unified opinion about whether to hold the presidential election in 2018, on the day of the annexation of Crimea on 18 March. His words on Tuesday, March 7th, the correspondent “Tapes.ru”.
“While any position is not formed. Here you will need time to consider this initiative”, — said Peskov.
According to him, the decision can be made “in the foreseeable future”.
Earlier, the speaker of the state Duma Vyacheslav Volodin has approved the idea of holding presidential elections in Russia in 2018 on the third Sunday of March 18th. In his opinion, the fact that the election date will coincide with “an amazing holiday that we celebrate for several years, is very good.”
March 3, senators Andrew Clisham and Anatoly Shirokov introduced a package of bills to change the electoral law. Documents sent to work in the profile Committee on constitutional legislation and state building.
Under current law, presidential elections are appointed no earlier than 100 days and no later than 90 days before election day. The will must be held on the second Sunday of March. However, as noted by parliamentarians, the calendar of the campaign might impact on March 8. Then elections are carried a week earlier.
The new amendments propose to change the system and to migrate from the previous election, and the next Sunday of the month.
In 2014 in the Crimea held a referendum, the majority of which voted for joining the Peninsula to Russia. 17 March of the same year Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognizing Crimea’s independence, which served as the legal basis of inclusion in Russia. The agreement on joining the Peninsula in Russia, was ratified on March 18.