Donetsk, Dec 22 — DAN. Activists on Saturday will start collecting signatures in support of President Vladimir Putin as a presidential candidate at the March 2024 election, co-chairman of Putin’s DPR election campaign HQ Sergey Samokhin told reporters.

“Signature collection will be launched in all large DPR towns, ” Samokhin said. “A huge team of volunteers has been in training for over a month.”

 The volunteers have to brief potential voters on the electioneering process and on how to fill in a signature sheet. A person wishing to express his or her support for the president must have the Russian passport, he said.

The incumbent president’s election campaign HQ was launched in Moscow’s Gostinny Dvor on December 21. Putin will run as a self-nominee in the 2024 election. His regional campaign headquarters opened in Donetsk on Friday.

On December 7, the Federation Council upper house of the Russian parliament set the next presidential election for 2024. Voting will be held over three days on March 15-17.*jk