By RFE/RL's Russian Service

Russia's Central Election Commission has registered two candidates to run against Vladimir Putin in a presidential election in March. The commission on January 5 approved Leonid Slutsky, the head of the lower house of parliament's international affairs committee, and Vladislav Davankov, the vice-speaker of the lower house, as candidates in the March 17 vote. Slutsky is a member of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, while Davankov is from the New People Party. Neither is expected to pose a challenge to Putin. His main rivals, Aleksei Navalny and Vladimir Kara-Murza, are in prison serving lengthy sentences that they say are politically motivated.