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Under the Federal Law, all political parties are freed from having to collect voters’ signatures in order to take part in election of any kind, with the sole exception of presidential election. Only public groups that are not political parties but have the status of electoral group taking part in local government election will have to collect signatures in support of the candidates they put forward. 

To take part in presidential election, political parties not represented in the Russian Federation State Duma and represented in less than a third of regional legislative assemblies will have to collect signatures, but the number required is now much lower.

Political parties in this case wanting to put forward a presidential candidate will now need to collect 100,000 signatures, as opposed to 2 million previously. Signatures must come to a total of not more than 2,500 in a single region. 

Self-nominated presidential candidates will now have to collect at least 300,000 signatures, of which not more than 7,500 can come from a single region, instead of the minimum 2 million previously required.

The relevant amendments have been made to the federal laws On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Rights of the Citizens of the Russian Federation to Participate in a Referendum, On the Election of the President of the Russian Federation, and On the Election of Deputies to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.