Russian Opposition Figure Navalny Says to Run in 2018 Presidential Election

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny on Tuesday announced in a statement his decision to participate in the 2018 presidential election, while the Central Election Commission (CEC) admitted that the prospects of his presidential bid depend on the outcome of a review of a criminal case the activist has been involved in.

"Presidential election is the discussion on the way of the country's development… I am ready to prove in dispute with any rival that my [electoral] program is better than the current policy. Support my nomination for the presidency, if you agree that Russia needs true elections," the statement said.

Commenting on the statement of Navalny, CEC Secretary Maya Grishina told RIA Novosti that the opportunity of his participation would depend on the review of the criminal case and on the documents, the Russian activist would present to the CEC.

"If he decides to stand for a post, of course, everything will depend on the results of the review [of the case] and on the papers he will submit. In any case, it is impossible to give more comments at the moment, because there are no any legal information on the issue, for example, I do not have it," Grishina said.

On December 5, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, commenting Navalny's previous statements indicating his desire to participate in the forthcoming presidential elections, that the opposition activist could not run for president as he had been convicted of embezzlement.

In 2012, Navalny and his associate Pyotr Ofitserov were convicted of setting up a criminal scheme to steal timber from state company KirovLes, resulting in a $255,000 loss to the regional budget. A five-year prison term sentence handed down to Navalny by court was suspended. In November, Russia’s Supreme Court overturned the sentence against the activist and initiated a retrial of the KirovLes case, based on a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).