Candidates in the 2004 Russian presidential election

This article contains the list of candidates associated with the 2004 Russian presidential election.

2004 Russian presidential candidates

Opinion polls

Registered candidates

Candidates are listed in the order they appear on the ballot paper (alphabetical order in Russian).

Candidate name, age, political party			Political offices	Details
Sergey Glazyev (43) Independent (campaign)			Leader of the Rodina party (2003-2004) Deputy of the State Duma (1993-1995 and 1999–2007) Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of Russia (1992-1993)	Glazyev was Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of Russia under Boris Yeltsin, a Communist member of the State Duma and in 2003 became co-chairman of the newly established Rodina party. However, he failed to win the Rodina nomination because of a power struggle with Dmitri Rogozin, and ran as independent candidate. He campaigned as a critic of economic reforms. He argued that post-Communist governments have ignored social justice and promised to improve welfare.
Oleg Malyshkin (52) Liberal Democratic Party (campaign)			Deputy of the State Duma (2003-2007)	Malyshkin was nominated by the Liberal Democratic Party, after the party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who contested the last three presidential elections, chose not to run again. Malyshkin, a mining engineer, had been an LDPR member since 1991 and the head of security of Vladimir Zhirinovsky. He was elected to the State Duma in 2003.
Sergey Mironov (51) Russian Party of Life (campaign)			Chairman of the Federation Council (2001-2011) Senator from Saint Petersburg (2001-2011)	Mironov was Chairman of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, and was considered a loyalist to Vladimir Putin. Prior to launching his campaign, he expressed his support for Putin's candidacy.
Vladimir Putin (51) Independent (campaign)			President of Russia (2000-2008 and 2012–present) Prime Minister of Russia (1999-2000 and 2008-2012) Director of the Federal Security Service (1998-1999)	Putin, formerly prime minister, was elected president in 2000, and ran for a second term. His popularity remained quite high during his term in office thanks to economic stability and despite controversies on media freedoms. He refused United Russia's invitation to be nominated as party candidate and ran as an independent.
Irina Khakamada (48) Independent (campaign)			Deputy of the State Duma (1993-2003)	Khakamada, the daughter of a Japanese Communist who took Soviet citizenship in the 1950s, emerged as Putin's most outspoken critic. A member of the State Duma for eight years, she lost her seat in 2003. She was a member of the Union of Rightist Forces, but did not run as a party candidate. "I am not afraid of the terrorists in power," she told the daily newspaper Kommersant. "Our children must grow up as free people. Dictatorship will not be accepted."
Nikolay Kharitonov (55) Communist Party (campaign)			Deputy of the State Duma (1993–present)	Kharitonov was the candidate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, despite not being a member of the party. A former KGB colonel, he was a member of the Agrarian Party of Russia, an ally of the Communist Party. He was put forward after Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov declined to stand for a third time.

Withdrawn candidates

Candidate name, age, political party			Political offices	Details	Date of withdrawal
Ivan Rybkin (57) Independent (campaign)			Secretary of the Security Council (1996-1998) Chairman of the State Duma (1994-1995) Deputy of the State Duma (1993-1996)	Rybkin was former chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, was nominated as a presidential candidate on 29 December 2003. On 7 February 2004, he was registered as a presidential candidate, but after his scandalous disappearance and his appearance in Kyiv in February 2004, he withdrew on 6 March.	6 March 2004

Rejected nominations

• Anzori Iosifovich Aksentiev-Kikalishvilli — Chairman of the All-Russian Party of People.
• Viktor Gerashchenko (campaign) — Deputy of the State Duma, former chairman of the State Bank of the USSR and Central Bank of Russia.
• Igor Alexandrovich Smykov
• German Sterligov (campaign) — former owner of the exchange "Alisa"

Declared candidates who withdrew without registering

• Vladimir Bryntsalov (campaign) — Deputy of the State Duma, 1996 presidential candidate.
• Vladimir Zhirinovsky

Possible candidates who did not run

The following individuals were included in some polls, were referred to in the media as possible candidates or had publicly expressed interest long before the elections but never announced that they would run.

• Dmitry Ayatskov
• Alexander Barkashov
• Boris Berezovsky
• Viktor Chernomyrdin
• Anatoly Chubais
• Sergey Dorenko
• Umar Dzhabrailov
• Boris Fyodorov
• Yegor Gaidar
• Stanislav Govorukhin
• German Gref
• Boris Gryzlov
• Vladimir Gusinsky
• Igor Ivanov
• Sergey Ivanov
• Mikhail Kasyanov
• Sergey Kiriyenko
• Alexei Kudrin
• Mikhail Lapshin
• Alexander Lebed (died 28 April 2002)
• Alexander Lukashenko
• Yury Luzhkov
• Valentina Matviyenko
• Boris Nemtsov
• Ella Pamfilova
• Alexey Podberezkin
• Nikolay Patrushev
• Yevgeny Primakov
• Dmitry Rogozin
• Vladimir Rushailo
• Vladimir Ryzhkov
• Savostyanov
• Gennady Seleznev
• Vladimir Shamanov
• Lyubov Sliska
• Yegor Stroyev
• Sergey Shoygu
• Yury Skuratov
• Sergei Stepashin
• Konstantin Titov
• Aman Tuleyev
• Alexander Voloshin
• Gennady Zyuganov
• Grigory Yavlinsky
• Boris Yeltsin