"Foreign embassies in Moscow have asked to be included in the lists of observers. If there were 20 people in the elections to the State Duma in 2016, there are presently 60 of them out of 52 embassies. According to experts, the number of applications will further increase," Klyukin said at a meeting of the Russian parliament's upper house's interim commission on state sovereignty protection and prevention of interference in Russia's internal affairs.
READ MORE: Majority of Russians Ready to Vote in Upcoming Presidential Election — Poll
Last week, CEC chairwoman Ella Pamfilova said that there was an unprecedented interest from observers in the forthcoming presidential election.
The eight people running for president are Sergey Baburin from the All-People's Union party, Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin, head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky, incumbent Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who is running as an independent candidate, Civil Initiative party candidate Ksenia Sobchak, Communists of Russia party chairman Maxim Suraykin, business ombudsman Boris Titov, and co-founder of the Yabloko Party Grigory Yavlinsky.
